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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29863290">Percy Jackson &amp; The Avengers: Convergence</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ocean_breezzq/pseuds/Ocean_breezzq'>Ocean_breezzq</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Percy Jackson &amp; The Avengers Series [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Canon Crossover, F/M, M/M, Post-Avengers (2012), Post-The Blood of Olympus (Heroes of Olympus), Teenagers</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-05-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-16 01:01:23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>34,956</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29863290</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ocean_breezzq/pseuds/Ocean_breezzq</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>"The day was going great. That is, until Percy was assaulted by a clownfish."</p><p>Or: The one in which the Seven meet the Avengers and they fight some bad guys together.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson, Calypso/Leo Valdez, Clint Barton/Laura Barton, Hazel Levesque/Frank Zhang, Jason Grace/Piper McLean, Nico di Angelo &amp; Will Solace, Paul Blofis/Sally Jackson, Pepper Potts/Tony Stark</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Percy Jackson &amp; The Avengers Series [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2195541</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>50</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>286</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Percy_Jackson_PJO</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. percy is assaulted by a clownfish</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Hello hello hello! For any newcomers, welcome! To my usual readers, welcome back to my writing! I promised a good story, and I brought you one! This is, obviously, a PJO/Avengers crossover fanfic. The first 10 chapters are prewritten, so those should come out fast, but the rest is still in progress. So I can tell you honestly this will be more than 10 chapters.</p><p>This is set a year after the Giant War and kinda a month or so after the first Avengers movie. I'm kinda pushing back Winter Soldier until after this story, so just know that. Other than that adjustment, the timeline will mainly stay the same. Nico and Thalia might make an appearance but idk for sure.</p><p>I plan on this being a series, so stick with me this'll take awhile. This story is kinda just an origin story of how the Avengers and PJO characters met and became a team, so this is NOT BASED ON ANY MOVIE.</p><p>I do have an amazing beta reader, nightskywithrainbows on Ao3, who has helped me get this story ready for you guys, so major kudos her them. Couldn't have done it without you!</p><p>This is also on FF, Ao3, Inkitt, Webnovel, and Tumblr. Now on with the story!</p><p>- your author</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The day was going great. That is, until Percy was assaulted by a clownfish.</p><p>He was just trying to have a relaxing evening with his girlfriend, but the Fates were never that nice, were they? Him and Annabeth were in Montauk, celebrating the second anniversary of the end of the Titan War and Percy's birthday. They decided to spend some time alone together in the water, just like they had done on multiple occasions. Percy created an air bubble, and Annabeth got the blue cupcakes. It was meant to be peaceful, but of course, some disaster had to happen that pulled Percy away.</p><p>Just as Percy had blown out the candle, he heard an extremely annoying voice screaming in his head. Of course, after living with his sometimes-odd abilities for so long, Percy had grown accustomed to hearing voices that nobody else could, and he didn't think much of it when he found he could hear the anxious yelling of a clownfish (whose name was Marlin, by the way).</p><p>"My lord! My lord! We need your help! Please!" the clownfish screamed, swimming as close as he could get to the air bubble without breaching it.</p><p>Percy sighed, closing his eyes and counting to ten, hoping that the fish would just go away so that he could enjoy his birthday with his girlfriend in peace.</p><p>Unfortunately, the sea animal was determined.</p><p>"My lord! Can you hear me? Hello! There's been a bombing! Please!"</p><p>Percy cracked one eye open, seeing a soft smile on Annabeth's face. She had noticed what was going on, or at least, she had guessed. This happened more than Percy would like to admit.</p><p>With one last deep breath, Percy responded, "What?"</p><p>He didn't mean it to come out so snappy, but it did. There was nothing he could do to change that, so he just continued on without apologizing. Honestly, couldn't he just get some vacation time for once?!</p><p>"We need your help, my lord! There's been a bombing on the Brooklyn Bridge! It's going to collapse! I have friends who live in the East River!" the fish hurriedly rushed out.</p><p>That peaked his attention. No matter how annoying it could be, Percy was still the son of Poseidon, and that meant he had a natural instinct to protect the ocean. Or any bodies of water, really. So there was really no other option for him other than to leave his beautiful girlfriend so that he could help the inhabitants of the East River.</p><p>"Perce?" Annabeth inquired, already clearly knowing what was about to be said to her.</p><p>Percy sighed, "Annabeth..."</p><p>Annabeth tried to give him a reassuring smile, but Percy could see through it, "It's okay. I understand. Go help. I'll still be here when you get back."</p><p>Percy gave her an apologetic smile before giving her a quick peck on the lips, "I love you so much! I'll be quick! I promise!"</p><p>"If only I could believe that," she muttered. Annabeth thought he hadn't heard, but he did.</p><p>Even so, he brought Annabeth to the beach and popped the bubble before jetting off with Marlin pulled alongside him. He knew that eventually he would have to part ways with the small fish, but for now, Percy needed the whole story.</p><p>"Ok, what happened? I need to know what I'm walking into," he said.</p><p>If it was possible, Marlin took a deep, calming breath before saying, "There was a psycho on the bridge with a bomb strapped to his chest. He stopped traffic, and kept ranting about how he was going to bring the truth to the surface and that, and I quote, 'You mortals are blind to the truth.' Then, there was an explosion and the bridge became unstable. That was ten minutes ago."</p><p>Wow, Percy thought, That's a lot of description coming from a clownfish.</p><p>"Thanks. Was it a mortal with the bomb?" he asked.</p><p>"Yes. At least, that's what the pigeon said. Word travels fast in the ocean, and not a lot of it is true. I just told you what I heard," Marlin answered.</p><p>That's when Percy realized that it was time to let Marlin go. They were already far from the fish's probable home, and soon enough, it would become nearly-impossible for the animal to find his way home again.</p><p>"That's good, but you should head back now. I can take it from here. I'll propel you a little ways so you have a head start. Thanks again for the warning," Percy told Marlin before using his powers to shoot the fish away.</p><p>Percy sped up to his maximum speed for the rest of the way, so it only took about five minutes.</p><p>When he got there, the place was a fiasco. Between animals crying out to him in distress or relief and the screams from the humans on the bridge, Percy could barely hear himself breathe. There was so much panic!</p><p>But he had been in situations like this before. He knew how to handle this. Heck, he had been in the middle of two wars! He could handle a little bombed bridge! Yeah...</p><p>"Ok, guys. I suggest you all move towards the floor. I'm about to do something really big, probably stupid, and most definitely dangerous for you if you don't move," Percy yelled to all of the sea creatures around him.</p><p>They instantly followed his instructions. Normally, that would bother Percy, them just doing whatever he tells them to, but he was a little busy with the rapidly-deteriorating bridge above him.</p><p>Once all of the animals were safe, Percy shot up to the shore. What he was about to do was best done without him in the water, even if that's where he's the most powerful.</p><p>Sending a little prayer to the East River Spirit and his father, Percy raised his hands until they were out directly in front of him. Feeling the all too familiar tug in his gut, Percy willed thousands of gallons of water to rise with his arms until it was hanging right below the bridge. Beads of sweat were already dripping off of Percy's forehead, but he refused to let anyone get hurt further, so he fought on. It's not like this was the most strenuous thing he's ever done with his powers before.</p><p>He could hear screams as increasingly larger pieces of the bridge continued to fall. Percy let the water catch all of the pieces, leaving the rest of the water free of any more pollution.</p><p>Taking one, huge breath, Percy directed the water to rise until it was completely covering the entire bottom of the bridge. Maybe some people noticed the giant body of water hovering below the Brooklyn Bridge, but they were all too focused on GETTING OFF of the bridge, rather than what was giving them more time.</p><p>Percy allowed the water to seep into every crack in the bridge, and then another possibly-stupid idea came to him, so he went with it. Percy made his hands into fists and focused hard on changing the water's viscosity, until it was a glue or gel-like substance. It took a lot out of him, but he managed to get it done.</p><p>Once it was over, he slowly, very slowly, lowered his hold over the liquid, praying to all the gods that he could think of that it worked. If it didn't, lots of people would die, and it would be on his hands.</p><p>Anyway, it worked! Percy let out a giant sigh of relief when he saw the structure was holding form. Suddenly imagining Annabeth's face if he was late made him rush back into the water with only a small glance around to check that nobody saw him do anything. Tyche seemed to be on his side that night because it seemed that nobody had even noticed that a shirtless, barefoot eighteen year old was standing on the edge of the East River. Then again, it was New York, so this wouldn't exactly be the weirdest thing around.</p><p>Unbeknownst to Percy, there were cameras on the bridge, and not all of them had been damaged. Not all of them were facing away from the East River, either.</p>
<hr/><p>Nicholas Fury was not a man used to waiting, and that is exactly what he was doing. For the past three hours!</p><p>There had been a bombing on the Brooklyn Bridge, and normally, this would be below SHIELD's paygrade, but something else happened at the event for someone to feel the need to call them in. Apparently, the East River up and lifted in the air, turned into goo, and held the bridge together until everyone could be safely evacuated. The thing is, nobody could figure out how it happened. Nobody!</p><p>All of SHIELD's resources at their hands, and none of his agents knew what to say. Hell, even he was having trouble figuring it out. Not that he would tell anyone that though.</p><p>However, Fury was on his way to the scene of the incident, and therefore he was confident the issue would be resolved soon.</p><p>When he got there, he was surprised to find that they had actually been able to drive all the way onto the bridge. He had assumed that it was too unstable to hold any more weight. Whatever the substance was that was holding it together was really strong. Inhumanly strong...</p><p>Fury went straight to the head agent on the case, Agent Greenaway, "What's the status?"</p><p>"Director, sir, the substance seems to be some sort of glue. Witnesses recalled seeing a huge mass of water rising under the bridge before it stopped shaking. We can assume that the missing water from the East River was turned into the goo. It is an unknown substance and so far, all we know is that it has extreme adhesive qualities," Greenaway answered.</p><p>Fury thought about that. There was no way that the water just did that on its own. Something, or someone, caused it to happen. Someone extremely powerful, and that meant extremely dangerous, too.</p><p>Without another word, Fury started to examine the scene. It was obvious where the blast originated from, and he could see where the glue seeped into the cracking asphalt. He knelt down and gently touched the gel. When he pulled his hand back, nothing was stuck to it. The gel could be squished, but it was not sticking to him. Odd, he thought.</p><p>As he stood back up, a flash of metal caught his eye. When he turned to investigate, he found that it was a security camera, and where there's one, there's more. That was perfect. Now they had video footage of what happened there.</p><p>"Greenaway!" he shouted, "Bring me all of the footage of the event from the cameras. Top priority!"</p><p>With a simple 'Yes, sir!', Greenaway was off completing his orders.</p><p>Deciding that he had seen enough, Fury headed back to his car, telling the driver to take him back to headquarters. He could bet that there would be an email with the camera footage in his inbox by the time he got back. That's just how SHIELD does things.</p><p>Sure enough, when he sat down in his office, it was there, waiting for him to watch. Quickly, he discarded the unimportant ones that clearly were not showing what he needed. All he was seeing was traffic, the bombing, and people rushing to get off the bridge. No suspicious activity whatsoever! That is, until he came upon the footage facing the edge of the river. It was grainy and hard to make out, but he could vaguely see a figure coming out of the water. That alone would raise suspicion.</p><p>As he kept watching, Fury found that his eyes were going in and out of focus, like something was blocking his vision. Every so often, the figure would just disappear, but then it would reappear seconds later, blurry as ever.</p><p>More confusion.</p><p>He watched as the figure, now most certainly a young man, raised his arms and the water followed. Obviously, this man could manipulate water, and lots of it.</p><p>Great. Another enhanced who thought he could save the world! Like Fury didn't already have enough on his plate to deal with before.</p><p>"Hill!" he called, and when the agent in question entered he said, "Find out who this is. I want everything on him. Even what his favourite food is, got it? This is a Level 10 operation. We have an 0-8-4 on our hands..."</p><p>Hill looked taken aback for a second, but she quickly recovered, "Got it, sir. I'll get it done."</p><p>"Good. You're dismissed," Fury ordered.</p><p>As she left, Fury's thoughts filled with the endless possibilities of this unknown man's origin. Was he an alien? An experiment? Or worse...was he something else?</p>
<hr/><p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. percy is taken by the men (women) in black</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Ok, so by what I've been hearing, there has been some confusion regarding the timeline, so here's the full explanation: figure it out for yourselves. My beta reader and I have already discussed this (MONTHS AGO IN FACT!) and we ultimately decided to not go into any specifics because it wasn't important to the story and the only thing you guys needed to know was that Percy and Annabeth were 18 now, and it's after the first Avengers movie and that Thor's not there. Got it? Ok, now to the real good stuff!</p><p>Thank you to all the people who have responded kindly to this story. Honestly, it made my day to find that I had already received 3 reviews on ff before it had even been out an hour. So, thanks so much guys. </p><p>THIS IS STILL CANON I JUST HAVEN'T HAD THE CHARACTERS MENTION MAGNUS CHASE OR THE KANES YET YOU MONGRELS!!! Ok. I think I covered everything. Stay safe and happy reading!</p><p>- your author </p><p>PS hopefully these will start to get shorter cuz I hate reading long A/Ns on other fanfics so I don't want to be THAT person. </p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>Knock Knock</em>
</p><p>"Come in, Hill," Fury said, already knowing it would be his second-in-command.</p><p>As she entered, Fury noticed a slight change in her attitude. It wasn't large, but it was noticeable to the experienced spy's eyes. It was almost- confusion? What could she have discovered that caused her to be confused?</p><p>"Sir, I found a possible suspect. He's...not what we expected," Hill told him, placing a file on his desk.</p><p>The file included a single piece of paper. A SINGLE PIECE OF PAPER!!! Who was this guy that could evade SHIELD's suspicion for so long? Surely, someone smart. Very smart.</p><p>"What do you mean, Hill?" he asked, picking up the paper.</p><p>The woman in question cleared her throat before responding, "See for yourself. He's just a kid."</p><p>Not displaying any surprise, though there was some going through his head, Fury read the information on the sheet:</p><p>
  <em>Name: PERSEUS "PERCY" JACKSON</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Gender: MALE</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Age/DOB: 18; AUGUST 18, 1993</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Status: ALIVE</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Last Known Location: MANHATTAN, NY</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Place of Birth: MANHATTAN, NY</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Race: CAUCASIAN</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Height: 6'1"</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Hair: BLACK</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Eyes: GREEN</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Disabilities: DYSLEXIA, ADHD</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Family: Sally Blofis (Formerly Jackson), Mother - ALIVE</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Paul Blofis, Step Father - ALIVE</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Estelle Blofis, Maternal Half Sister - ALIVE</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Gabe Ugliano, Step Father - MISSING</em>
</p><p>
  <em>BIOLOGICAL FATHER UNKNOWN</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Education: GOODE HIGH SCHOOL - EXPELLED</em>
</p><p>
  <em>YANCY ACADEMY - EXPELLED</em>
</p><p>
  <em>...6 OTHER EXPULSIONS</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Abilities/Weapons: CLASSIFIED</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Other Info: Was involved in a nation-wide manhunt at 12 years old; Pushed class into shark tank; Blew up school bus with colonial cannon; Flooded an Aquarium; Seen traveling Greece with six other teens after missing three months of school (wasn't reported missing by parents);Suspected abilities; Was seen at Brooklyn Bridge explosion</em>
</p><p>Fury sighed. Just great. Another troublemaker to give him a headache. And what was with the Classified stamp? Nothing is classified to the director of the company who created the file, so why was this?</p><p>Deciding to put it off for further thought, and steeling himself over again, Fury gave his orders to Agent Hill, "Find him. Bring him in for questioning. Don't make a scene."</p><p>They were simple orders in themselves, but Fury knew better than to expect everything to go smoothly. Any second grader could figure out that Perseus Jackson was not one to do things smoothly. Hell, it would be a miracle if they even got the chance to talk to the kid before he did some crazy stunt that would most likely get someone hurt. That's just how Fury's luck was.</p><p>"Understood, sir. I'll let you know when we have him in custody," Hill answered before briskly striding out the office door.</p><p>Fury sighed once she was gone, running a hand over his face. With nobody watching, he could truly let the stress on the inside seep into the outside. It wasn't just this one case either, there had been a couple other bombings popping up around the US, and they weren't any closer to finding the source. All they knew about them was that they were connected and that they were seemingly random attacks. Add finding Jackson to the mix and his mind was about ready to implode.</p><p>But unfortunately, the director of SHIELD didn't have time for breaks, so he went back to work on the multitude of information residing on his desk.</p><hr/><p>Percy and Annabeth were back at home, which was currently the Blofis apartment, and they were enjoying every minute of it. With his sister Estelle around, there was always something to do. Percy absolutely adored his sister. There was nothing he wouldn't do for her. Just another side effect of his fatal flaw.</p><p>He hadn't told his mother or Paul what had happened during their trip, not wanting to worry them, but he had given Annabeth the simple explanation when he got back. He made sure to stress that he had been discreet, so she had eventually given up the interrogation. That's why it was such a surprise when they were sent a visitor not a week later.</p><p>When it happened, Percy was playing with Estelle in the living room while Annabeth studied in their room. Even though she had graduated from high school early, and they weren't due to start at New Rome University for several months, she insisted on keeping up with her studies. He, on the other hand, couldn't have cared less about school. The only reason he was going to college was so he could stay near Annabeth.</p><p>Sally was cooking lunch in the kitchen, and Paul was at work. There wasn't much the man could do for the case of Percy's expulsion from Goode, but he still worked there as an English teacher. And Percy used the powers of being a savior of Olympus to get a diploma for himself from the gods anyway. Annabeth still made him study sometimes, but he figured it was the least he could do after practically giving his girlfriend a heart attack when he announced he wasn't planning on finishing mortal high school.</p><p>Just as he was about to let Estelle win their game of cars, there was a knock at the door. Since his mother was closer to it, Percy didn't feel the need to interrupt his playtime with his baby sister. A year ago, Percy would have bolted to the door to make sure it wasn't a monster, but ever since the end of the Giant War, monsters tended to steer clear of the smell of the sea. Besides Kelli, of course. She was a perpetual nuisance for Percy.</p><p>And just as he was about to make his car lose, his mother called him, "Percy! There's someone at the door for you."</p><p>He was immediately on alert. The way his mom's voice sounded made it seem like she was trying to warn him, so his mind went straight down monster lane. Gripping Riptide in his pocket, Percy made his way to the front door, trying to act casual, but his muscles were tensed for battle.</p><p>"Coming, Mom!" he answered.</p><p>What he found was certainly not what he was expecting. Sure, it wouldn't have been a surprise to find that it wasn't obviously a monster, but his eyes weren't completely masked by the Mist. He could still tell when in the presence of something related to the divine, and he most-certainly was not in that moment.</p><p>As he got to the door, he noticed that his mom had positioned her body to block the entrance to the apartment. <em>So not a monster, but possibly a threat, he concluded.</em></p><p>"Who's this?" he asked his mom, taking her place in front of the doorway.</p><p>"I'm Agent Hill with the FBI, and I have a few questions to ask. Would it be alright if we stepped inside?" the woman introduced herself, flashing a badge.</p><p>Percy wished he could have checked the badge's authentication, but his dyslexia prohibited that. He did his best to keep a cool persona as he acted like he could actually read what was on the badge. Given that his mother hadn't made any protests, he passed it off as good enough.</p><p>He narrowed his eyes at the agent, assessing her threat level quickly before deciding that saying 'no' would cause more trouble than saying 'yes' and answering with a simple, "Sure."</p><p>He and his mom backed away and let the women enter before shutting the door behind them. As the woman walked inside, Percy and his mom shared a silent conversation. He told her to take Estelle to her room and stay with her after alerting Annabeth of their visitor. He was sure that his girlfriend had already figured it out, but better to be safe than sorry.</p><p>"Take a seat. Do you want anything to drink?" Percy gestured to the kitchen table and went to grab glasses out of the cupboard.</p><p>The woman took a seat before saying, "Some water would be great, thank you."</p><p>Percy mentally noted that the woman was keeping a professional front while trying to still be friendly.</p><p>After he had gotten the water and sat himself down across from Agent Hill, he said, "You said you wanted to ask some questions. I'm not sure why, though. I haven't done anything."</p><p>Hill took a sip of her water before responding, "Well, we are just going over some of our older files and wanted to fill in some blanks on yours. For instance, where were you when you disappeared? We have a record saying you were spotted in Greece."</p><p>Percy had been prepared for this question. Annabeth had ingrained it in his head after he had run into his old swim team and had fumbled over an answer. After that, Annabeth had come up with a whole explanation for what seemed like every possible question out there.</p><p>So, he quickly answered, "I was with my dad."</p><p>He had been told that it was best to answer with short sentences. That way there was less room for confusion. Honestly, he was surprising himself with the calmness he exhibited. Annabeth had suspected he would end up needing her to rescue him if the need for these explanations ever arose.</p><p>"I thought you didn't know who your dad was," Hill countered smoothly, gaze becoming almost snake-like.</p><p>"We recently connected. He lives in Greece," Percy said.</p><p>Out of the corner of his eye, he could make out some blond curls peeking out from the edge of the hallway leading to the bedrooms. His mind let out a sigh at the knowledge that his Wise Girl was here to save him from whatever inevitable mistake he made.</p><p>"Ok, then could you please inform me of his name?" Hill asked, "And then maybe we could travel somewhere more private for the rest of my questions."</p><p>She could tell that they were being spied on, then. That seemed like a little above the average skill-level of an FBI agent to Percy, but he was just basing his thoughts off of movies, so he wasn't too sure.</p><p>Whatever the case, there was no way that he was going to go anywhere with Agent Hill. Here at home, he was on his turf. Wherever he was taken would be unknown territory, and it was common sense to not go into there.</p><p>Trying to dodge the name question, he said, "I'm not going anywhere with you without a warrant. I have rights, you know."</p><p>He was just saying what sounded right. Honestly, he had slept through US History. He barely knew who the first president was, let alone his constitutional rights.</p><p>"Those are irrelevant with probable cause, and we're only going to ask some more questions. I promise that if you come calmly, there will be no record of it anywhere," Hill said, standing up and brushing off invisible dirt from her clothes.</p><p>Percy thought about it, he really did...for a whole three seconds. I mean, what would one expect from the most irrational person on the planet?</p><p>"Yeah...sorry but I'm not going anywhere with you, especially not calmly," he said, standing up and reaching into his pocket again.</p><p>Even though he knew that the Agent was a mortal, and that Riptide would be useless in a fight against her, he still had an instinct to go for his most-trusted weapon when endangered. And in the moment, he felt extremely endangered.</p><p>Hill seemed to be trying to inconspicuously reach for her gun, but he saw it. His ADHD had kicked into overdrive, and he was noticing every little movement the woman made. ADHD could come in handy sometimes.</p><p>"Mr. Jackson, I highly suggest you stand down and let me take you in. I don't want this to get messy," Hill said smoothly, holding a hand out in a placating gesture.</p><p>"Too bad everything I do gets messy," Percy said, trying to simply swipe Agent Hill's legs out from under her, but she jumped over it and threw a punch to his temple, which is swiftly dodged.</p><p>Percy may have been taught to never hit girls when he was younger, but when he became a demigod, he learned that a threat could come from anywhere, and more often than not, it came from the female gender (or something resembling a female).</p><p>His signature troublemaker smirk made its way onto his face when he realized that this fight was actually something he had to work for. He wasn't arrogant persay, but he knew what he had defeated before, and a simple mortal isn't usually a comparison to them. But he knew better than to underestimate any opponent. Annabeth taught him that one. Speaking of Annabeth, she was still hiding behind the wall, probably waiting until the prime moment to strike. Always the strategist!</p><p>Hill and Percy's fight become a fluid motion. Sometimes they got a hit in, but most of the time it was a game of defend and retaliate. Nobody had the upper hand...yet.</p><p>Percy may be better at swordsmanship, but it wasn't like he was completely ignorant to hand-to-hand combat. He knew some stuff, including how to feint and attack. Blame Luke for that one.</p><p>So, Percy used the technique. He wasn't actually expecting it to work, considering the obvious skill level of the agent he was fighting, but maybe a simple trick was just the thing he needed to knock her off her game. Even so, when he feinted a punch to her temple, just to pull back and knee her in the stomach, he didn't stop in shock. He let his adrenaline guide him into pulling the woman into a headlock that even Tyson, with all his cyclops strength, would have trouble getting out of.</p><p>Hill pulled at his arm a couple times before giving up on that strategy and trying another one: talking, "You know, Perseus, this little display makes it really hard for me to believe you're innocent. In case you haven't noticed, you're holding a federal agent in a headlock."</p><p>Percy grip barely loosened, but his determination to defy the agent's questions lessened. She was right. What makes her think that he's one of the good guys if he fought another one of them? Nothing, that's what. Because of this, he let out a large sigh, making eye contact with Annabeth (who's eyes widened in realization and shock), and released Agent Hill. He knew that she had manipulated her, but he also knew that what she had said was true.</p><p>As soon as Hill was out of his hold, she turned around while simultaneously pulling her gun out and pointing it at Percy, chest heaving for breath, "Don't move! Get on your knees and put your hands behind your head."</p><p>Percy complied, but he could see Annabeth finally slipping into the light, ready to fight off the woman arresting her boyfriend. He met her eyes and tried to convey his thoughts, but she ignored him, instead opting to go ballistic on Agent Hill.</p><p>"What do you think you're doing?! Let him go!" she yelled and grabbed Percy as Hill cuffed Percy with some seriously high-tech handcuffs and tried to pull him to his feet.</p><p>Hill kept a steel face as she shoved Percy towards the door, "He assaulted a federal agent. I have probable cause."</p><p>All of the noise had pulled Sally out of her hiding spot in her daughter's room. Once she saw what was happening, she joined Annabeth in protest. Percy just really wanted them to let it happen. Better it be him than anyone else.</p><p>"Mom, Annabeth, let me go. I'll be fine, I promise." Percy said, eyes pleading as they reached the front door.</p><p>Annabeth scoffed, eyebrows furrowing, "Like that means anything!"</p><p>"Mom, let me go. I'll be fine," After saying that to his mother, Percy turned to Annabeth, "Tell my cousins what's going on. They can help."</p><p>He prayed that she understood what he was trying to say. He wanted her to tell their demigod friend's what happened to him, and then they could help her with whatever plan she comes up with. Knowing Annabeth, she already had a plan, though, so there was no doubt in his mind that she had understood what he was insinuating.</p><p>Annabeth hesitated before giving him a curt nod. Hill took that as her signal to tug him out the door, but before he was completely gone, Annabeth grabbed his face in her hands and gave him a kiss. They were deepening it as the Agent once again pulled him away. Annabeth and his mom's worried faces followed him until he was inside the elevator, heading down to the lobby.</p><p>On the ride down, his entire body tensed up as flashbacks from the Doors of Death shot through his mind. Usually, he could push them away when Annabeth was there with him, but the stress of the previous hour was weighing on his mind, so it became difficult. Hill seemed to think that he was going to try to resist again, so she pulled out her gun again, aiming at his side. For the first time, Percy noticed that the gun looked a little odd; it was glowing blue. Then, before he could react, Hill pulled the trigger and the last thing Percy saw before he blacked out was blue liquid seeping out of his side.</p><hr/><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>How was it? Let me know in the comments! As always, leave kudos and subscribe! Thank you to my amazing beta reader, nightskywithrainbows on Ao3! This would suck without you! Go check out their writing!</p><p>- your author</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. percy meets a real life pirate</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Hi! I'm just gonna let you guys know now that I don't really have an updating schedule thus far. The only thing I'm doing it making sure that I get a chapter out at least every 2 days. </p><p>I hope you guys are enjoying this so far, and please don't hesitate to correct me if I make any technical mistakes. Sometimes my beta and I will both miss something. </p><p>This would not have been possible without my amazing beta reader, nightskywithrainbows, so tysm you are a lifesaver. You keep this story from being absolute shit.</p><p>As a reminder, this story is also on FF, Wattpad, Inkitt, Webnovel, and Tumblr. If you prefer those places, just go check out the story on there. Now, on with the good stuff! Stay safe and happy reading!</p><p>- your author</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The first thing Percy felt was aching and stinging pain coming from his side. He groaned and tried to sit up, but found that he was tied down to a gurney with leather straps. <em>So they think I'm a psycho. Nice to know,</em> Percy's ADHD brain thought.</p><p>The bright lights caused his vision to swim for a second before they could focus and perform a quick surveillance of the room that revealed to Percy that he was in some sort of metal box. The walls had hexagons on them and there was a metal table with two metal chairs in the middle of the room. Basically, everything was metal.</p><p>In the corner, there was a camera with a blinking red light, so Percy knew that he was being watched. That meant he couldn't try an Iris Message unless he wanted some interesting questions from his captors that he didn't have answers to. He wasn't an idiot.</p><p>Speaking of his captors, nobody had come in yet, but they clearly knew he was awake. That meant that they were trying to scare him. Little did they know, it would take a lot more than isolation to scare him. Specifically, something less mortal.</p><p>Deciding that it would be best to try to calm himself, Percy willed his muscles to relax and closed his eyes. On the outside, it seemed like he was sleeping, but on the inside, his mind was flitting from topic to topic faster than light. It went from freaking out, to figuring out how to escape, to Annabeth, to his mom, to sleep, and back to freaking out. It was an endless cycle.</p><p>"You aren't that good of an actor, you know," a voice shocked him out of his thoughts, causing him to attempt to jump up again.</p><p>The attempt resulted in his wrists undoubtedly getting bruised, and his side to feel like he just got kicked in the ribs. Remembering that, apparently, Hill shot him, he started to freak out again. When he looked down, he could barely see the blue liquid dried on his side. So they had poisoned him then?</p><p>"You poisoned me?!" he exclaimed, finally meeting the eyes of the voice.</p><p>It was a middle-aged man with a starting of a receding hairline, with smile lines around his eyes. He was wearing a simple suit with an outline of a gun sticking out on the side, so he was another agent, but he kind of reminded Percy of Paul with how he presented himself.</p><p>The man gave him a small smile, "Agent Hill only used a tranquilizer. My name is Agent Phil Coulson of the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcements and Logistics Division, or SHIELD."</p><p>Percy raised his eyebrows, "That's quite the name, and I thought you were the FBI. Also, would you mind telling me why I'm strapped down? I haven't done anything."</p><p>Percy thought that the best course of action was to stick with the innocent story, considering that it was partially true anyway.</p><p>"Well, I don't think that's completely true, Mr. Jackson. You assaulted our agent. We have every right to prepare for any other outbursts from you," Coulson said.</p><p>"She wanted to arrest me for no reason. I don't know what you guys want from me, but I can't help you. I'm a completely normal guy," Percy insisted, hand slowly sliding down until it rested against his pocket. He let out an involuntary sigh when he felt Riptide.</p><p>Coulson kept a cool face as he responded smoothly, "A completely normal guy wouldn't say he was completely normal."</p><p><em>Schist,</em> Percy swore in his head. If Annabeth was there, they would've been free already. But with his luck, he would end up in some world-ending crisis again.</p><p>But then he heard a voice in his head. Not the kind of voice crazy people hear, but it was his father's voice, speaking to him like it used to during times of trouble. If this was serious enough to gain Poseidon's attention, then it was an issue Percy should be worrying about more. A demigod's life is never at peace...</p><p><em>"Stay silent, Percy. These are the ones working with the Avengers and the Norse god, Thor. They have not proven their trustworthiness yet. You were sent here to learn more about them. I'm sorry, Percy,"</em> his father said, voice somber and apologetic.</p><p>Percy gritted his teeth and resisted the urge to call the Fates a lot of colorful names. But that would just provoke them, so he stayed silent. He moved his gaze from Agent Coulson to the ceiling, trying to ignore the world around him. Unfortunately, that's impossible for someone whose mind is constantly alert to his surroundings.</p><p>Coulson sighed and tapped something on a tablet that Percy hadn't noticed, "Would you mind explaining this video?"</p><p>Percy tried to not look, but it was so tempting! So, he glanced over and saw himself, in his swim trunks, holding his hands out while thousands of gallons of water rose up out of the East River. Percy's eyes widened unconsciously in panic. He hadn't known there were cameras there, let alone that the Mist hadn't covered it up. Wait! The Mist.</p><p>"What do you see?" He asked, letting his head face Coulson again in question.</p><p>Coulon made a face that said he had just had a question answered for him. What that question was, worried Percy.</p><p>"I see a man, who looks a lot like you by the way, with extraordinary powers saving a lot of people. I just want to know if that man was you, and why we at SHIELD didn't know about your abilities," Coulson answered, staring Percy down.</p><p>The stare was like one you'd get from a teacher who had just asked you why you never turned in an assignment. It made Percy feel like he couldn't look away, but it almost hurt to keep looking.</p><p>But his father's voice rang in his head, reminding him to not reveal anything important, so he stayed silent.</p><p>Coulson sighed and stood up, "Very well, then. Let us know when you want to talk."</p><p>And then he left through a door in the wall that disappeared as soon as he was gone. Percy was seriously considering just using Riptide to slice his way out of there, but then he felt an unwanted feeling in his chest: Fear. They were in the air. How he had not realized earlier, Percy didn't know, but that wasn't his first priority in that moment. He was focused on getting OUT of the air and ON the ground, where he had no chance of getting electrocuted by his diva uncle.</p><p>The sky rumbled in the distance, but Percy ignored it. He had grown used to that happening whenever he thought ill of the gods, and it had stopped having an effect on him long ago.</p><p>He sent a silent prayer to his dad asking what to do. Annabeth's plans had never covered what to do when taken by a secret spy organization! He was clueless in this situation, as per usual.</p><p>All the answer he got was a gentle sea breeze blowing through the room. That's it. It was comforting, but not exactly clear on what the answer was. But that's how the gods do everything, anyway.</p><p><em>"Tell them you were born with the powers. You don't know where they came from, and you only wanted to help. You don't know anyone else who has them. Earn their trust, and figure it out from there. I trust you, son. Be careful,"</em> His father's voice flew through his mind.</p><p><em>Well, guess that answers that,</em> Percy thought.</p><p>With yet another sigh, Percy called out to nobody, assuming they would hear him through some hidden microphone, "I'm ready to talk!"</p><p>Not a minute later, there was a click as the hidden door opened once again, letting in an asian woman in a skintight suit. She looked like the stereotypical spy, that's for sure.</p><p>She came over to him without a word and released his hands first, cuffing them with the same glowing handcuffs, before letting his legs free, too. She was clearly waiting for him to bolt, so Percy tried his best to make his body relax. If they were to trust him, he needed to cooperate fully.</p><p>The woman kept a permanent scowl on her face the entire time they were together. She was a little violent, too. She was practically shoving him the entire short walk. When they reached their destination, they were in a room with a huge screen table and three tvs on the wall. It was a whole lot of technology, and it made Percy on edge. Demigods and tech within two feet of each other are a big no-no.</p><p>The woman took his hesitation as a sign of escape and jabbed him in the small of his back, making his chest push forward immediately. Even though he had lost the Curse of Achilles, that one point on his body was still really sensitive. He turned his head around and shot a glare at the small lady on instinct. He tried to hold it back, but she had just poked his weakest point, what else could he have done?</p><p>"Move it," she growled out, meeting his glare with one of her own.</p><p>It didn't faze him, though. Lupa's was much scarier.</p><p>He sighed (he seriously needed to get a handle on the sighing), and sluggishly moved forward into the room. He just kept telling himself that the faster he got through this, the faster he got to see Annabeth again.</p><p>When he looked around the small glass room, he saw Agent Coulson, along with four others. Another, younger asian-looking woman (but she was in normal clothes), a tall brooding man in the corner dressed like an agent, a ginger-haired woman, and a nervous, curly-haired man. His eyes immediately drew to all the possible escape routes and any of the weapons, or things that could be used as weapons, in the room. The brooding man seemed to notice because he stood up tall and took a threatening step forward.</p><p>Percy ignored him, though, and looked straight at Coulson when he asked, "Why are they here? Tell them to leave."</p><p>"You don't give the orders here," Brooding man said before Coulson could speak.</p><p>Percy finally turned to the other Agent with a smirk, "And you don't either. And I don't remember asking you."</p><p>It's not like he TRIED to get in trouble with authority! It's more like authority seeks out trouble from him. This moment was an example (not that Percy would call the brooding man authority).</p><p>The brooding man took a couple more steps towards Percy, until he was right in front of him. He looked like he was used to towering over others, but Percy wasn't short or weak. He could confidently say that he could beat the man in front of him, so he kept his troublemaker smirk and stared the agent down.</p><p>"Watch it, Jackson. I'm not the one in handcuffs here," brooding man said before going back to his corner after a pointed look from Coulson.</p><p>"Are you sure about that?" Percy rebutted, holding his very uncuffed hands up in the air.</p><p>He couldn't help it, truly. It just slipped out! He had been unconsciously working on getting his cuffs off the entire time, and he had just broken free when the perfect opportunity came up.</p><p>Everyone in the room immediately either jumped forward to push him down or pulled out some sort of weapon. Except Coulson, that is.</p><p>"Stand down, guys. He's not gonna do anything. Isn't that right, Mr. Jackson?" he said.</p><p>Percy rolled his eyes, "Yeah. Of course not. If I wanted to get out of here, I would've a long time ago."</p><p>Turns out that wasn't the right answer because the first asian woman shoved him into the screen table, making him almost fall over. He held onto it for support, apparently touching something because a file with his face on it popped up. Percy immediately jumped back on instinct, fearing a monster would pop up out of the shadows. Except, the picture was from his junior yearbook photo...</p><p>"Why'd you guys have to use that picture? I look constipated!" he whined, scrunching up his nose in uncomfort.</p><p>The younger asian woman snorted, but tried to cover it up after her team glared at her. Clearly, she was the only one on the aircraft capable of feeling, Percy decided.</p><p>"We aren't here to discuss embarrassing yearbook photos, Perseus. We are here to talk about your abilities," The first asian woman stated.</p><p>"It's Percy," he corrected on instinct, and the woman glared at him even harder.</p><p>Before the situation could escalate any further, Coulson cut in again, "Could you please tell us what you wanted to tell us from before?"</p><p>"Yes. What do you want to know?" Percy said, putting his hands into his pockets and playing around with Riptide.</p><p>"Where do your abilities come from? How long have you had them?" The ginger asked.</p><p><em>Good,</em> Percy thought with a smile,<em> I know how to answer these ones.</em></p><p>"I was born with them, so I don't know where they come from." he stated simply, shrugging.</p><p>The ginger looked a little bit disappointed by that answer, but it didn't stop her from interrogating him more, "What are your limits? How have you kept your powers hidden for so long? Can I have a urine sample?"</p><p>Percy had decided that she was a scientist. With the way that everyone else was letting her ask all the questions, they probably thought she was the most capable. And plus, she was getting WAY too excited about pee.</p><p>"I don't know, I haven't really been hiding, and NO!!" he answered, giving the woman a look of disgust.</p><p>Now that he thought about it, it probably wouldn't be good if they got ANY DNA from him. He had never been told what it looks like with half of him made from the gods.</p><p>The ginger looked like she was going to ask more questions, but the curly-haired man rested a hand on her shoulder, seemingly calming her. Percy noted that the two were close.</p><p>"Any other questions?" he asked calmly, looking around.</p><p>Just as the brooding man looked like he was going to speak, the younger asian woman broke in, "Your powers are awesome! How much practice have you had with them? I would really love to see what else you could do with them!"</p><p>Ok, so the girl was probably a hero groupie. She didn't look like an agent, so that left the question of why she was on the plane with the rest of them.</p><p>Speaking of the plane, "Why are we flying? Can we finish this up on the ground PLEASE?"</p><p>Percy was already pushing his luck by being there for that long, let alone staying on here willingly.</p><p>The brooding man spoke, "How do you know we were flying? And unless you want to jump, no."</p><p>The brooding man was getting way too much joy out of Percy's fear. Like, phobias are real people!</p><p>"Ward, if you don't stop talking, I'm going to let Mr. Jackson have a go at you," Coulson said calmly, "Now, I have a proposition for you, Mr. Jackson, if you're willing to listen."</p><p>Percy figured that it couldn't hurt, so he gave the man a small nod. He was really trying to think before acting because he had a bad feeling that the conversation would change the course of his life for the better, or for the worse.</p><p>The other people in the room didn't seem to have prior knowledge of what Coulson was talking about, and that just made Percy more worried. What could possibly be important enough that Coulson hid it from his team (or that's what Percy thinks they are). His ADHD brain started to wonder where Hill went, but he quickly pushed that thought away. He needed to focus on the present!</p><p>"The Director would like you to join SHIELD. Officially, you would be a consultant. But unofficially, you would help us when we need your gifts." Coulson said, shocking literally everyone in the room.</p><p>Two beats of silence went before the team started into chaos:</p><p>"What?!"</p><p>"What are you talking about?!"</p><p>"Why weren't we told about this?"</p><p>"Am I even considered a consultant?"</p><p>"I'm sorry?"</p><p>Before it could get too out of hand, Percy spoke up, which seemed to silence everyone else, "Are you out of your mind? I thought I was a criminal!"</p><p>He wasn't admitting to being a criminal, but that's how they had been treating him. He might as well address their behavior.</p><p>"We need the full story from you before we can move forward, but the Director was clear in his orders," Coulson said.</p><p>Percy considered what the best option was. There really wasn't one, but what else was he gonna do?</p><p>"I want to speak to the Director in person before I give my answer," Percy came to his conclusion.</p><p>If anyone was going to learn whatever story he came up with, it would be the top dog in SHIELD. Nobody else, even if he's not allowed to reveal the gods.</p><p>Coulson thought about it for a second before answering, "Ok. He's in the interrogation room right now."</p><p>Before he could hold it in, Percy full-out laughed. Of course a spy organization would anticipate what he would want. Why not?</p><p>The rest of the team didn't seem to know about their guest either, though. <em>Wow,</em> Percy thought, <em>Somebody needs to work on keeping everyone in the loop.</em></p><p>Then, Percy just walked out. Nobody tried to stop him, which meant that everyone was waiting until he was gone to truly let it show their lack of trust in the team. It took awhile to get there, but when he reached his cell again, he noticed that the door was very obvious from the outside and that it really wasn't that big of a room. He was surprised that they would put the boss inside a place they kept criminals.</p><p>Before he had even finished closing the door, Percy heard a deep voice speak, "Welcome, Mr. Jackson. I thought you would want to speak with me directly. I'm Director Nick Fury of SHIELD."</p><p>Turning around, Percy came face to face with a spy pirate. No seriously, the guy was wearing a long, black coat with an eyepatch over his left eye. The guy also had dark skin with a bald head. It took all of Percy's willpower to not burst out laughing at the sight. Plus, the guy was called Fury!</p><p>"Yeah. I'm only willing to tell you some things," Percy said.</p><p>"Understandable. What is it you would like to tell me? And does this mean you are agreeing to my proposition?" Fury asked.</p><p>Just as Percy was about to deny everything, his father spoke to him again (that was happening a lot that day), <em>"It's okay, Percy. You can trust him. He doesn't know it, but he is a legacy of Nike. Zeus agreed to it."</em></p><p>Percy gave the Director a once-over before deciding it was safe, "Yeah, I'm in. And I need you to swear on the Styx that what is said in this conversation doesn't leave this room. Ever."</p><p>He may have had permission, but Percy wasn't just going to expose his entire family without some security first! He wasn't a total Seaweed Brain, despite what some people thought.</p><p>"Yeah, sure whatever. I swear on the Styx that this conversation won't leave this room," the Director sighed, clearly not liking Percy's stalling.</p><p>Thunder rumbled in the distance.</p><p>Taking a deep breath and pushing past any natural instincts he had, Percy spoke something he never likes to say to a mortal, "I'm a demigod."</p><hr/><p><em>My boyfriend is out of his mind! </em>Annabeth screamed in her head.</p><p>She was currently walking up to the Big House after gathering all of the cabin counselors, praetors through IM, and the rest of the Seven. After Percy was taken, she had immediately left for camp. She had understood what Percy was trying to tell her before, and she was happy that he had actually thought a little about his actions before doing them. Given, they were stupid actions, but it was improvement.</p><p>Annabeth hadn't told anyone what was happening, just said that it was an emergency and that it involved Percy. That was all they needed to know it was important. Honestly, everyone had been anticipating Percy to mess up sooner than he had. They had made it an entire year before something big happened! Once again, improvement for the son of Poseidon.</p><p>As she walked into the rec room, she watched as everyone's eyes turned to her. At first, it was a little unsettling, but she steeled herself over before any signs of weakness shown through. She had to keep a strong front for her friends, especially since Percy was mis- no, taken, again. She refused to say Percy was missing. He promised he wouldn't leave her again, and she was holding him to that.</p><p>After she had taken a seat, Chiron spoke, "What happened, child?"</p><p>"Yeah! What's Prissy gotten himself into this time?" Clarisse grunted.</p><p>Annabeth ran a hand through her hair once, a habit she had picked up from Percy, before answering, "He's been taken by the FBI, or someone impersonating them. They seemed too skilled to be the FBI. He told me to get you guys for help."</p><p>"Of course he has," Nico muttered from his spot next to Will Solace, "Cuz why not?"</p><p>Annabeth gave him a small smile, "I have a plan. We're going to break him out from wherever he is. We'll figure out where he is by IMing him, and then we'll storm the place. I want our heaviest hitters making a distraction while Nico and I break him out. Got it everyone?"</p><p>She had said that all in one breath. She really didn't have time to go over it again, and her face must have betrayed that, so everyone just nodded along.</p><p>"We'll IM him and then see who we need to bring," she said, already pulling out a drachma and a rainbow maker, courtesy of Iris.</p><p>Making the rainbow, she said, "O Fleecy, do me a solid. Show me Percy Jackson, location unknown."</p><p>The mist shimmered before showing Percy in a metal box, talking to a dark-skinned man with an eyepatch. From the sound of it, they hadn't noticed her yet, so she cleared her throat. She didn't care if the eyepatch man saw her, she needed to see if Percy was okay.</p><p>Both men looked over at her and her relieved smile grew into a scowl when she saw that Percy looked completely at ease, "Perseus Jackson! Where are you, and why haven't you contacted me?!"</p><p>She distantly heard Leo mutter 'whipped' before Percy stammered over a response, "A-Annabeth! I-I'm fine! I was just going to call you, too!"</p><p>Her face was probably a tomato of fury, "Like Hades you were!"</p><p>"Can we please stop using my father's name as a curse?" Nico asked, but nobody paid any attention.</p><p>"I swear I was! I just finished making a deal!" Percy exclaimed.</p><p>"He was, whoever you are. I assume you are his girlfriend?" the eyepatch man said.</p><p>She rounded on him, but before she could start her yelling, Percy spoke up, "Wise Girl! I. AM. FINE. I just made a deal that will let me go. I will tell you about it when I see you again, but I can't do that if you're yelling at Fury!"</p><p>Percy's eyes widened at his ambitiousness, and he seemed to be about to take it all back, but Annabeth spoke first, "If you aren't at camp in an hour, I'm coming to find you."</p><p>And then she swiped a hand through the message before Percy could try to apologize. <em>Gods, that boy is in a world trouble,</em> Annabeth thought before storming out of the room and towards the Poseidon cabin without another word.</p><hr/><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Remember to comment, subscribe, and leave kudos! Tell your friends about this story! Stay safe and happy reading!</p><p>- your author</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. team-up time!!</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Ok, so I'm a little off schedule, but who cares? Honestly, I've been getting a lot of good reviews/comments and I'm so grateful!! </p><p>My amazing beta reader, nightskywithrainbows, is so patient and I would not be able to do this without you. So, give them some love! Go check out their stuff on Ao3.</p><p>Anyway, I hope you like this! Stay safe and happy reading!</p><p>- your author</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"Wise Girl? Are you here?" Percy asked as he walked into his cabin.</p><p>He had just gotten back, and the first thing he did was ask where Annabeth was. Apparently, she had got into the Poseidon Cabin after their IM and hadn't come out since. It was sweet, really, but if she ever caught him saying that, he would be beheaded in an instant, so he kept it to himself.</p><p>He was not expecting what he saw when he walked into his home-away-from-home. Annabeth was asleep on top of his covers, a book laying beside her. The lights were still on, too. It looked like she had tried to stay awake for him, but it was reasonable for her to fall asleep. He HAD gotten back at 2 AM.</p><p>To anyone else, she would have looked peaceful, but he knew his girlfriend, and he saw that she was having a nightmare. Unlike him, who thrashed around and screamed, Annabeth was dead silent during her dreams. It had scared him more times than one. The only indication was her frown, the slight sheen of sweat, and the rare barely-there whimper.</p><p>He raced to her side, lying down next to her and pulling her into his side, "Shhh...you're okay. We're okay. We got out. We're safe now."</p><p>The Tartarus nightmares had gotten better, but they still had them every so often. They had learned to deal with them properly in a way that worked. They had even tried therapy once, but that was a disaster waiting to happen anyways. Annabeth and him don't talk about their feelings very well. Still, it was worrying to watch your loved ones suffer with nothing to offer for comfort other than your support.</p><p>Percy continued to whisper sweet nothings and reassurances in Annabeth's ear before her breathing eventually evened out and she slowly started to blink her eyes open. She seemed confused about his appearance for a second before she realized that he had come in while she was sleeping.</p><p>"Seaweed Brain? When did you get here?" She tried to sit up, but Percy held her tight, so she relaxed into him.</p><p>"Not long ago. But don't avoid the question. You know we need to talk about it. What happened this time?" he asked.</p><p>Annabeth sighed and answered, "It was the same one. You were controlling the poison 'down there' and I saw your eyes. They were a sickly green, Percy. Not anything like your usual sea green. They were almost grey, and they were glowing. I was terrified. This time, I couldn't stop you. I had to watch as y-you killed her."</p><p>By then, tears had started to escape her tight control over them. If it were anyone else, Annabeth would never have let them hear her sound so weak, let alone see her crying. She was the strong leader of Camp Half-blood, and that came with the responsibility to keep a confident front.</p><p>However, every leader needs time to release the stress. Her alone time with Percy was that time. He had been through almost everything with her, and she trusted him to the end of the universe. HE was HER rock just as much as SHE was HIS.</p><p>"I would never do that. You have to know that. It wasn't real. We're home, and we're together. We made it, Wise Girl," Percy reassured, kissing her on the head.</p><p>"Yeah, I know. They just get so real sometimes," Annabeth curled into his side.</p><p>"I know. It's late, though. Do you want to stay up talking or do you want to try to sleep again?" he asked, tucking them under the sheets.</p><p>Annabeth closed her eyes, wrapping Percy's arm around her tighter as she said, "Let's go to bed. I'm sure I'll be fine now that you're here."</p><p>Percy smiled his goofy smile, "Okay, Wise Girl. I love you."</p><p>"I love you, too, dork."</p><p>He chuckled, and Annabeth fell asleep in contentment to the sound of his heart beating. As long as that was happening, she would be fine.</p><hr/><p>The next few weeks went by as smoothly as a demigod's life could. Percy never received any communication attempts from SHIELD, so he let himself fall back into his schedule. Him and Annabeth went to stay with Sally while also staying at camp on and off. There were no major problems for him to deal with, and he was soaking up every bit of it.</p><p>Of course, he should have never said anything. That was an invitation to the Fates.</p><p>He was driving with Annabeth when he learned about it. A news broadcaster came over the radio and was retelling an active event happening in Los Angeles.</p><p>
  <em>"There has been another suicide bombing in downtown LA. There appears to be GREEN FIRE coming from the explosion. Officials are attempting to get the flames under control, but their tactics seem to be failing thus far. This is another in a string of connected bombings around the US. So far, there are no suspects, but we are told there has been progress made in the investigation. What is the purpose of these attacks and who..."</em>
</p><p>Annabeth turned the volume down. She turned to Percy with a grave expression. Green fire could only mean one thing: the divine were involved. The mortals had somehow gotten into contact with Greek fire, and they were using it for terrible acts of violence. And of course nobody could put the fire out, it was impossible unless dealt with by someone who knew what they were dealing with. Like Leo, for example.</p><p>"Percy, at the Brooklyn Bridge, was the fire green?" Annabeth asked cautiously, already dreading the answer.</p><p>"I can't remember. I was too focused on making sure the bridge didn't collapse that I didn't bother to check what the explosion looked like. Oh gods, what if I could've done something if I had seen it earlier? What if I could have stopped this bombing in LA? This is all my fault!" he exclaimed.</p><p>Annabeth laced her fingers with his, "Perce, you did more than anyone could've asked. You saved so many people that day. This is not your fault, okay?"</p><p>He still looked disbelieving, but he reluctantly nodded. He didn't have time to debate his guilt with Annabeth, he had somewhere to be. Percy wasn't exactly sure where that location was, but he was needed somewhere, and so was Annabeth.</p><p>"SHIELD's on this case already. I need to get in contact with them, and then we need to meet with them. I'm not letting anyone else get hurt," he told Annabeth, driving towards Camp Half-Blood.</p><p>The gears were turning in Annabeth;s head, and he knew the exact moment she figured out what his plan was. Surprisingly, she didn't argue. She just nodded and grabbed her phone from her backpack, flipping it open and turning it on. She only used it in emergencies, and this felt like an emergency.</p><p>She called one of the few numbers she had on there: Camp Half-blood's. Camp had only one phone in the Big House, and it was scarcely used. It was an old landline, too, in hopes that it attracted less monsters. Nowadays, it was impossible to not attract them, with technology all around them.</p><p>It rang for a long time, almost to the point that she was just going to give up, but right as she was going to press the 'end call' button, Jason's voice came over the phone, "Hello? Who is this?"</p><p>Annabeth let out a sigh of relief, "It's Annabeth. I'm with Percy. We need you to gather the Seven quickly. We'll be there soon."</p><p>"What? Annabeth, what's going on? Why do you sound so worried?" Jason asked.</p><p>Annabeth's patience was waning, "Jason! This is important! Secret of the gods important! Prepare for a fight and wait for us to get to camp. We'll explain there."</p><p>Jason sighed, clearly wanting more information than that, "Alright. See you soon."</p><p>"Bye," Annabeth hung up the phone as soon as possible.</p><p>They had probably already been on for too long, but it was worth a shot. And besides, none of the monsters would dare come near them once they realized who was on the call. That's what she was counting on, anyway.</p><p>She looked up at Percy and instantly noticed the tension all throughout his body. He still believed it was his fault, obviously. There wasn't much she could do about that. It was his fatal flaw!</p><p>"We're going to figure this out," she consoled.</p><p>"Yeah," Percy whispered as he pulled over at the bottom of the hill leading up to Camp.</p><p>They were both out of the car and running already, so it didn't take them long to reach Peleus and Thalia's tree. He didn't even pay them a thought as they ran through the border and towards the Big House, where they could see a group of armored demigods congregated on the porch.</p><p>As they ran closer, they saw it was the Seven on the porch, talking with Chiron. They were all in their basic armor: a chestplate, greaves, vambraces, and helmets resting under their arms. Piper had her dagger hanging on a belt, Jason had his gladius, Frank had his bow and arrows slung over back, and Hazel was carrying her imperial gold spatha. Leo was, of course, wearing his toolbelt. They all were in various states of confusion and agitation from being left in the dark about whatever they were dealing with, and they all seemed relieved when Annabeth and Percy came running up.</p><p>Before either of them could get a word out, Piper spoke, "Let me guess: this has something to do with Percy and the bombings, and now we need to go clean up his mess."</p><p>"Words hurt, Pipes," Percy sarcastically held a hand over his heart.</p><p>She rolled her eyes, "You'll survive."</p><p>Annabeth smiled in the direction of her friend. She had really started to become comfortable as a demigod in the past year. Plus, she had picked up on some of Annabeth's habits. Like picking on Percy, for example.</p><p>"What's this about Annabeth?" Jason asked, stopping the playful mood in its tracks.</p><p>Annabeth exchanged a look with her boyfriend before responding, "Piper was right. This is about the bombings. They're using Greek fire. But it's still mortals doing it. That means somebody from out world is supplying the mortals with our weapons, and that is a recipe for disaster. We need to stop it before it gets too out of hand."</p><p>"Why us, though?" Hazel asked.</p><p>"We're the Heroes of Olympus, and we're the best to represent our kind in the fight. Plus, I trust you guys the most. In case it is a mole in the camps, we need to keep this between us," Annabeth answered.</p><p>The mood got even more serious at the realization of where her thoughts were headed. Somebody still inside the camp could be taking the fire to the mortals, and they didn't know who it was yet.</p><p>But then Piper noticed something in Annabeth's wording, "What do you mean 'represent our kind?' Who are we meeting?"</p><p>Percy answered her this time, "SHIELD. They're already working on this, and I have a deal with their director to help with stuff from our world. We only need to figure out how to contact them."</p><p>"I've got that covered!" Annabeth interrupted, "I have a plan."</p><p>"Of course you do," Jason said, "What is it?"</p><p>"We're going to Stark Towers, and we're going to meet with Tony Stark. He's Iron Man, and he no doubt works with SHIELD, so we'll use him to get to them. It's not my best plan, but it's the best we got," she answered.</p><p>"It's better than what I was going to do," Percy remarked.</p><p>Annabeth didn't even want to ask what his plan was going to be. That was a road she did not want to go down.</p><p>"When do you leave?" Chiron asked, finally speaking for the first time.</p><p>"Percy and I will get ready and then we'll head out right after. We need to get a handle on this ASAP," Annabeth answered, already heading towards the armor shed.</p><p>Percy ran down to meet her there, and they got dressed in the same gear as the others before heading towards their separate cabins. As a precaution, all campers had been required to make an emergency quest backpack in case they had to leave quickly. They had the demigod essentials like toothbrushes and paste, deodorant, a couple spare changes of clothes, nectar and ambrosia, and a prism with some drachmas for IMing.</p><p>Percy and Annabeth both grabbed their kits, along with a few other personal items that they suspected would be needed for this specific quest, if you could even call it that. They still had to meet with Rachel, but she was staying with her dad in New York. That would have to wait for later.</p><p>They were geared-up and ready in less than twenty minutes, and then they were standing on the edge of Half-blood hill with the others, saying goodbye to Chiron.</p><p>"Be careful. I have a feeling the path you are about to take will lead you through hard times," Chiron warned.</p><p>"We'll be fine, Chiron. It's nothing we can't handle," Annabeth assured.</p><p>He gave a tight smile in return. His reaction to their quest was disconcerting, but the demigods didn't have time to ponder on it. They had to get to Stark Towers as soon as possible.</p><p>So, they gave one last wave and started towards the Delphi Strawberries van Argus had pulled up. He would be driving them to the tower, but they would be on their own from there. There wasn't any reason to be worried, though. They had traveled across the world on a floating boat; this would be a piece of cake.</p><p>The drive there was tense and silence-filled. Or it was until Leo ruined it.</p><p>"So I get to meet Tony Stark?" he asked, an excited grin forming on his face.</p><p>Piper groaned, realizing what was bound to happen. She had met Mr. Stark at a gala her father had dragged her to before. He was a self-centered jerk who had too much money to know what to do with it. Plus, his ego was the size of a planet. Leo and Tony Stark together in one room was going to be crazy.</p><p>"Don't do anything nuts, Leo. We need him to trust us, and it's hard enough doing that without telling him what we are," Percy said.</p><p>Leo gasped, "I am hurt that you would ever think I would do such a thing! Uncle Leo just wanted to chat about some design flaws in his suit! And maybe some possible ideas that all that money could help put into action..."</p><p>Annabeth gave him her death glare, and he sank away, "You are forbidden from speaking until I say so."</p><p>He hurriedly nodded his head. She was scary!</p><p>Percy smirked at his girlfriend, knowing that she was fully aware of the effect she had on the poor demigod. Of course, Percy was whipped, too, but it was still amusing to see Annabeth go all 'powerful daughter of Athena' on people that weren't him.</p><p>"We're almost there, guys," Piper said, pointing up ahead, where they could see the tall outline of Stark Towers.</p><p>Annabeth had to admit, the architecture was impressive, even if she would've gone less futuristic. But the sustainable energy system was remarkable.</p><p>She snapped herself out of her daze. She was not there to admire the architecture, she was there to do her job: saving the mortals. And with the amount of stupid stuff they did, they would never get a vacation.</p><p>"So what's so important about this Stark guy?" Hazel asked, finally giving in to her curiosity.</p><p>"Oh! I always forget you aren't all caught up on modern pop culture," Piper exclaimed, "Tony Stark is a rich, playboy, engineer who doubles as an Avenger. The Avengers saved the world from aliens when we were saving it from itself. He's Iron Man, which is basically just a suit he invented."</p><p>"Sounds like someone Leo would like," Hazel remarked.</p><p>Percy laughed as Argus pulled over, "Exactly."</p><p>The demigods all climbed out, standing in a line before the entrance. It seemed they were all waiting for one of them to make the first move, but nobody wanted to be that person. Of course, Annabeth wasn't one to back down from anything, so she stepped forward and pushed the glass doors open, striding through with confidence only a daughter of Athena could command.</p><p>The rest of the group trailed behind, tensed for anything. They were literally surrounded on all sides by technology, and it was unnerving for them all. Well, for almost all of them. Leo was practically vibrating with energy and excitement. He was about to meet his idol AND get the chance to explore all of the toys there.</p><p>"Remember: professional," Annabeth warned one last time before turning to address the front desk lady.</p><p>"Yes, mom," Piper whispered to Leo, who muffled a snicker in response.</p><p>Percy just prayed that this all went well. He wanted this whole ordeal to be over quickly. He didn't want to be brought into another situation where he had to use his powers. They were still too unreliable, even after a year. The bridge incident was hopefully a one-time thing.</p><p>"Hello. We're here to meet Tony Stark," Annabeth said.</p><p>They knew the Mist was covering their weapons and armor, especially with Hazel there. People wanted to see some regular teenagers, so that's what they were seeing. Not seven, well-trained demigods in full armor, prepared for battle.</p><p>The receptionist looked her up and down, "Do you have an appointment?"</p><p>Annabeth tried for a smile, but it turned into more of a grimace, "No, but it's important. I'm sure Mr. Stark would understand once we talk to him."</p><p>Sometimes being young can come in handy, but a lot of the time, it sucks.</p><p>"I'm sorry, but Mr. Stark only accepts scheduled meetings. If you want to make one of those, you can contact his secretary. But for now, I would ask that you please leave," the woman responded.</p><p>Annabeth glared, and was about to start yelling, but Percy stepped up and placed a calming hand on her shoulder before he spoke, "Actually, this is urgent. And I'm sure that if you called Mr. Stark, he would send us up, considering that we're friends from work, and I'm not talking about his day job."</p><p>He said everything so calmly, that you would have thought he was having a civil conversation if not for his icy words.</p><p>"Fine," the woman ripped the phone up and dialled a number, "Yes, there are seven teenagers here to see Mr. Stark. They say it's urgent. And that it's about his OTHER work."</p><p>She nodded a few times before hanging up, "Mr. Stark will see you now."</p><hr/><p>
  <em>45 minutes earlier...</em>
</p><p>Fury was not having a good day. First, an idiot dressed-up as a spider ruins his morning, and then another bombing happens in LA, and finally, he has to deal with the Avengers now. He had been hoping to deal with this case without them, but he was pushed into the decision when he got a message from the terrorists responsible for the bombs. They threatened to bomb things much more important than the Brooklyn Bridge, and that they had the means to do worse.</p><p>None of his regular agents could figure it out, so he had to bring in the big guns. Besides, the heroes had had much too long of a break already.</p><p>That's how he found himself in another blacked-out SUV, on his way to Stark Towers after calling a meeting of the Avengers there. He had no way of contacting Thor, so it was just Stark, Rogers, Widow, Banner, and Barton. He had another person in mind, but Fury didn't want to call him in just yet. It was still a new alliance after all.</p><p>When he got there, he went straight up the elevator to the penthouse. From there, he went to the meeting room and found everyone but Stark already there, which was no surprise. Without a word, he strode up to the head of the table and slipped the flash drive into the slot, automatically turning on the holo-projector in the center of the table. The flash drive had all of the details of the case, along with whatever notes his agents had made.</p><p>He opened up the photo gallery, flicking to each bombing site, "The Brooklyn Bridge, Portland, LA, Long Island, San Francisco. What do all of these have in common?"</p><p>Just as Steve was about to answer, Tony burst in the door, taking a seat without an apology, as per usual.</p><p>Steve cleared his throat before continuing, "They all had a bombing happen recently."</p><p>"That's right. And it's gotten out of hand. Your job is to stop them," Fury cut right to the point, "Everything you'll need is in this folder. I want this done discreetly. That means no flashy spectacles, Stark."</p><p>Tony mock-gasped, "I would never!"</p><p>Banner shifted nervously, "Will the 'other guy' be needed for this?"</p><p>"Possibly, but as a last resort. You'll be needed for tracking more than anything," Fury answered.</p><p>Bruce nodded his head, seemingly finding comfort in that.</p><p>One look at Clint and Natasha, and you could see that they had gone into SHIELD agent mode. They were both studying the file information with rapt attention. They, at least, Fury could count on.</p><p>"This needs to be done as quickly as possible, got it?" he ordered.</p><p>"Yes, sir!" Tony sarcastically saluted.</p><p>Fury held back a growl. If anyone could make him lose his composure, it would be Tony Stark.</p><p>"I expect results the next time I see you," he said, turning to walk out of the room, but he was interrupted by J.A.R.V.I.S.</p><p>"Sir, there is a group of teenagers asking to see you. They say it is urgent," the AI said.</p><p>Tony sighed, "J.A.R.V.I.S., I thought I programmed you better than this. I don't want to see them."</p><p>"But sir, I am told it has something to do with your Avengers work. They are very adamant," J.A.R.V.I.S. pressed.</p><p>"Pull up the camera feeds," Tony ordered.</p><p>For some reason, Fury felt compelled to see who had wanted to see Stark, and he understood why as soon as he saw the footage. There, with six other teens, was Percy Jackson.</p><p>Before Tony could turn them down again, Fury said, "Let them up. Now."</p><p>"Right away, Director," J.A.R.V.I.S. replied, listening to his SHIELD reprogramming.</p><p>Tony threw his hands up in defeat and grumbled "Whatever. It's not like I own the building."</p><p>"Direct them here, J.A.R.V.I.S.," Fury ordered, going back to his previous position at the head of the table.</p><p>Steve sat up in confusion, "What are you doing, Fury?"</p><p>The man in question ignored him.</p><p>Before any more objections could be made, the Seven were standing before the Avengers, everyone confused.</p><p>Percy was the one who broke the silence, "Well, this makes our job a whole lot easier."</p><hr/><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Don't forget to comment, subscribe, and leave kudos! Stay safe and happy reading!</p><p>- your author</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. woah! shy guy is a bear now!</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Oyasuminasai! Or Ohayoo! Or Konnichiwa! And if you were wondering, yes, I am taking Japanese as my language. So if I ever find a way to incorporate Japanese into this, I KNOW WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!!! Sorry, sore subject. </p><p>Anywho! I'm sorry for taking too long to update. I was lazy and didn't feel like it. It's as simple as that. I also found some REALLY good fanfics to read recently, and they are super long and have sequels so yeah you know how that is, right? </p><p>Now on with the story! Stay safe and happy reading!</p><p>- your author</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p><em>"Well, this makes our job a whole lot easier," </em>Percy said.</p><p>Percy looked around and saw all of the avengers besides "Thor." Magnus had told them what the real Thor looked like, and from what they saw on the news, this version of the guy was not the real one. Annabeth had theorized that they were aliens who had taken to calling themselves gods when Percy had asked about it. Whether they were real or not, Percy still immediately disliked gods in any form.</p><p>"What are you doing here, Mr. Jackson?" Director Fury asked, leaning onto the table.</p><p>"Yeah! What are you doing in my tower?" Tony asked, finally tuning into the conversation.</p><p>Percy smirked, and Annabeth knew what he was about to say would be offensive to somebody, but he spoke before she could stop him, "We're here to do your job."</p><p>Tony scowled, "Listen here, kid. We deal with serious threats, and we don't have time to help you. Plus, we're the Avengers, and you're kids."</p><p>Annabeth narrowed her eyes, a small blow to her pride being felt, "Unless you want to die, you need our help. We deal with this stuff on a daily basis."</p><p>Okay, so they don't really deal with it on a DAILY basis, but close enough. Besides, the guy's ego needed to be knocked down a peg. Annabeth was even thinking about showcasing their skills to prove their worth.</p><p>"I think we got it handled, kids," Steve said, holding out a placating hand.</p><p>Piper thought it was the perfect time for her to butt-in, "Oh really? So you know where the green fire comes from? And how to put it out?"</p><p>At their silence, Piper gave a smug nod, "Thought so."</p><p>Fury saw this getting out of hand, so he brought it back on-topic, "Mr. Jackson! I asked you a question. Does your answer mean you are offering your help in this case? And does that mean this is a part of your world?"</p><p>Annabeth and Percy seemed to be having a silent debate with each other, and it seemed that Annabeth was winning. And when Percy answered Fury, it was obviously not what he wanted to say.</p><p>"We are here to help however we can. This is equally a part of our world and yours," he said, voice monotone like he was reading from a script.</p><p>Annabeth seemed satisfied with his answer, but she also wanted to add her own part, "We would also prefer that we keep our involvement as inconspicuous as possible. The gods know you guys have trouble with that."</p><p>"Hey! I take offense! And did you say 'gods'?!" Tony exclaimed.</p><p>Everyone ignored him, and only paid attention to what Steve said: "Are we really going to be bringing kids into this, Fury? I don't like this."</p><p>Fury sighed, and answered on his way out for the second time, "Yes, we're doing this. Get acquainted with each other, no fights, same expectations. And I don't care if you like it or not, Rogers, we're doing this. Jackson! Can I speak with you outside?"</p><p>Percy nodded and followed him out the door.</p><p>"What do you know that we don't? Are you telling them what you are? Are the other kids in there like you?" Fury rounded on him as soon as the door was closed, speaking in a whisper.</p><p>Fury didn't know what could be considered an insult to these new gods. He was treading in unknown territory here.</p><p>"We don't know much more than you, probably. And no, we're keeping what we are a secret. We're all the same, though," he answered, choosing his words very carefully.</p><p>Percy suspected that Tony Stark had eyes and ears everywhere, and would no-doubt try to figure out their secret on the first night. His job was to make sure that didn't happen.</p><p>"Be careful, Jackson. These people don't like secrets," Fury warned, walking away without another word.</p><p>Percy tried not to take the man's words too seriously. Doing that would just distract him from the quest. They needed to deal with these bombings quickly, and then go their seperate ways from the Avengers. Telling them their secret was NOT a part of the plan.</p><p>With a deep, preparing breath, Percy reentered the meeting room. Inside, he found both groups glaring at each other in silence. It was clear that nobody trusted each other, and that needed to change. If they were going to fight together, they needed to have some semblance of trust. Without that, they weren't going to last that long.</p><p>"Hey, guys! Why don't we start with introductions! I'm Percy," he said, clapping his hands together.</p><p>It was clear that nobody was buying his cheery mood, but at least Hazel was willing to try.</p><p>She said, "I'm Hazel."</p><p>"I'm Piper, and that idiot over there is Leo. We've forbidden him from speaking, so he's not able to introduce himself," she stuck her thumb in Leo's direction, who was literally bouncing on the balls of his feet.</p><p>It was a miracle that he hadn't caught on fire yet, honestly. Usually, at least his nose will start smoking when he gets too excited.</p><p>"Jason," Jason introduced.</p><p>"Hi. I'm Frank," Frank said, nervously twiddling his thumbs.</p><p>Annabeth's glare intensified when she said, "Annabeth. Not Annie, or Beth. Annabeth."</p><p>Percy smiled, slinging an arm over his girlfriend's shoulders in hopes of calming her down. She was way too high strung in the moment when they all needed to be relaxed and open.</p><p>The demigods looked at the Avengers, waiting for their introductions. Some of them didn't really need it, but it was nice to be formal.</p><p>"I'm Captain Steve Rogers. It's a pleasure to meet you all," Steve nodded his head in greeting and pointed to each Avengers respectively, "This is Dr. Bruce Banner, Clint, Natasha, and I'm sure you know Tony Stark."</p><p>"Of course they do, Capsicle. Why wouldn't they?" Tony gloated.</p><p>Annabeth rolled her eyes, but Leo couldn't hold his tongue any longer, "Oh my gods! There are so many things I need to ask you about! Why did you keep the name Iron Man when the suit is obviously made of a nickel-titanium alloy? Why don't you protect the arc reactor more? With the amount of power that thing holds, you'd think you would take bet–"</p><p>"Leo! Shut up!" Piper yelled, charmspeak weaving through her words.</p><p>His mouth immediately shut and was physically withheld from opening again. Piper seemed satisfied with her work when Leo attempted to speak again, but his lips weren't moving.</p><p>"Gods, I love charmspeak," Frank murmured under his breath.</p><p>"I know, right? But sometimes it can get a little annoying. Like when she doesn't realize she's using it, and then you do exactly what she wants, no matter what? I mean, that's a little..." Percy trailed off, realizing he had let his ADHD get out of hand, "Sorry."</p><p>Annabeth fondly smiled up at him.</p><p>"Can we get back on track, please? How are you kids going to be able to help us?" Clint asked, speaking up for the first time.</p><p>"Can we address what this Leo guy just said?!" Tony exclaimed.</p><p>"We have...special abilities that make us fit to deal with these kinds of things. Usually, we'd deal with this on our own, but...this is the first time it's been done like this. Our people don't usually work with your type of people," Annabeth ignored Tony, hating to admit that they were different from the mortals.</p><p>"What kind of abilities?" Natasha asked, scepticism lacing her words.</p><p>The demigods shared looks with each other, all evidently asking Percy and Annabeth what they should do. Their decision was to show them.</p><p>"They're hard to explain, but we can show you. It might be easier to be somewhere with more room, though," Percy answered, looking around at the small space they were all standing in.</p><p>"We can do this in the living room. I need a drink, anyways," Tony said, exiting without waiting for a consensus.</p><p>The rest of the group followed him, albeit a little reluctantly in some cases. Percy made sure to pull Annabeth to the back so they could talk. He was worried about his control. His powers did not like to be used in small areas. The ocean did not like to be restrained to precise movements. That's what he was worried about, and he told Annabeth that.</p><p><br/>"I'm not sure about this, Wise Girl. I still haven't really had enough practice since 'that place,'" he whispered.</p><p>Annabeth pecked him on the cheek, "You'll be fine. I trust you, but you need to trust yourself. I know you have control over your powers. Just look at what happened at the Brooklyn Bridge!"</p><p>He was still tense, but her words did have some effect. He was at least willing to try now, even if he refused to do anything big. He would only do something basic enough to prove he was capable, but nothing dangerous. Percy wasn't Leo; he wasn't in this to show off.</p><p>"Now let's catch up. You know we can't leave Leo alone for long," she cracked a grin, trying to defuse even more of his tension.</p><p>Percy forced his troublemaker smirk back onto his face before lacing his hand with Annabeth's, and walking in the direction the others had gone. They found them in a large room with a very open-floor plan. Off to the side, they could see Tony fixing himself a drink at the bar. Everyone else was sitting on the unnaturally-long couches, the Avengers on one and the demigods on the other.</p><p>Everyone seemed to be waiting for the two to join them to start. That or none of them had the guts to go first. But with Leo there, it was most likely the first option.</p><p>"Who wants to go first?" Annabeth asked as she and Percy sat down.</p><p>Leo seemed to be pleading with his eyes, and Annabeth, for some reason, decided to pity him and let him go first. With a simple nod of confirmation, Leo shot up from his seat and went to the side, where there was more room.</p><p>"Keep it low-key, Leo," Jason warned, knowing full-well nothing his friend did was low-key.</p><p>"Of course, Lightning Boy! I get it!" Leo reassured.</p><p>He positioned himself in a square stance before lighting his whole body on fire. If it was possible, Leo defied expectations of how not low-key he could get.</p><p>"Oh! Somebody put it out!" Bruce exclaimed, rushing over to Leo.</p><p>Before anyone could start dousing him in water, Leo turned it off, revealing himself free of burns. Luckily, he had been wearing one of Calypso's fireproof outfits, so his clothes had stayed intact. His skin was covered in a thin layer of soot, and his hair was letting off some smoke, though.</p><p>"Tada!" he proudly said.</p><p>Tony's interest seemed to be piqued, "That was awesome! How are you still okay? Is it some sort of mutation?"</p><p>"Something like that," Annabeth answered for him, fearing that Leo would let something slip on the first day.</p><p>She knew there was a high chance that their secret would be revealed at some point, but she wanted to prolong the mystery as long as possible. That meant constantly watching what the others said, especially Leo and Percy.</p><p>"Frank! You're up next, bud!" Leo pointed at the chinese teen.</p><p>Frank seemed to shrink in on himself slightly before convincing himself to stand confidently and walk over to replace Leo on the scorched floorspace.</p><p>"I'm not really sure what to do, so...I'll just do this," he said, before turning into a guinea pig and back quickly.</p><p>Percy shuddered, bad memories flooding in. He would never look at celery the same way again...</p><p>Tony did not seem impressed, "So...you can change into a rodent? How's that gonna help us?"</p><p>Frank straightened up again before staring right at Tony as he turned into a grizzly bear, raising on all fours and letting out a growl. Tony seemed to be in a state between fear and curiosity, but before he could speak again, Frank turned back and walked back to his spot on the couch between Jason and Hazel.</p><p>"I stand corrected," Tony muttered before going and taking a seat himself, a brown drink in hand.</p><p>"I guess I'll go next. You guys have kinda already seen what I can do, but I guess I'll showcase it again," Piper said, standing up but not moving to where Frank and Leo had.</p><p>She looked around the room and its occupants before choosing her targets, "Tony, pour your drink in your lap."</p><p>Tony got a dazed look in his eyes before he robotically moved his glass over his lap, tipping it to the side and letting all of the liquid drop onto his legs. When it was all gone, he snapped out of his fatigue and jumped up.</p><p>"What the hell happened? Who did this?!" he explained, looking down at his pants.</p><p>Natasha actually SMILED, "I like her. We need more girls around here, especially ones who can do that."</p><p>Tony turned to glare at Piper, "You did this!"</p><p>Piper only smirked smugly in response, "Yep. I did. Now, sit back down."</p><p>Tony complied immediately, causing his team to break out in laughter.</p><p>"We call it charmspeak. Only Piper can do it," Annabeth informed the Avengers, "Jason? Why don't you go next?"</p><p>"Alright. I can't do anything too major, since we're inside, but I think I have an idea," he said, moving to the same open area.</p><p>He glanced around before zeroing his gaze on a power outlet in the floor. He reached out a hand in its direction, and slowly, a string of electricity snaked its way out of the outlet. It built in his hands until it was in the shape of a ball, and then he stopped gathering it. He tossed the ball between a couple times before throwing it at Tony's chest, causing his arc reactor to glow brighter.</p><p>Jason smiled and went to sit back down again, "That's what I can do."</p><p>"Cool," Clint commented, "What about Hazel?"</p><p>"I can do this," Hazel stated simply, breaking a chunk of concrete off the floor before placing it back in place.</p><p>She didn't even move from her spot, the only part of her moving was her arm. She made it seem effortless, but if more attention was paid, someone could see that a beat of sweat had formed on her brow. Unnatural minerals, like concrete, were harder to control.</p><p>"Impressive," Steve sat forward, "What about you, Annabeth? What can you do?"</p><p>Before she could explain that she didn't have any powers, Percy answered for her, "She's a genius. Plus, she can fight, like, really well."</p><p>"Very eloquent, Seaweed Brain," Annabeth teased, but her smile was thankful.</p><p>He knew she was self-conscious about being the only one in the Seven without a demigod power. But he also knew that she didn't need it. She was the best at everything else already.</p><p>"I'll be testing that later," Tony said, clearly telling the truth.</p><p>Annabeth sat up straight and looked him right in the eye, "Looking forward to it."</p><p>"The only one left is you, Percy. What can you do?" Natasha inquired.</p><p>The superspy had noticed that the boy had tried to sink into the background. He was uncomfortable with answering the question, and that meant that it was worth pressing for. She wasn't afraid to do it, either. Natasha didn't like that Fury had kept something from her, and she was determined to find out the full story.</p><p>"Um...well, I can control water, basically," he answered, squirming under all of their gazes.</p><p>"Can you show us?" Steve asked, tone gentler than Natasha's was.</p><p>"I guess. It'll be something really small, though," Percy responded.</p><p>He saw that there was a vase full of flowers and water in the corner, and he chose that as his example. He held out a slightly-shaking hand in its direction and called the water to him. The familiar tug in his gut was almost indecipherable when the water trickled out and into the air. It did the same thing as Jason's electricity when it formed a line to his hands before forming into a ball. Percy held it above him, eyes narrowed in concentration, and willed it to become the shape of a small spear. He focused his attention on a spot between Clint's open legs and through the water-spear at that area. It hit its mark and dissolved on impact.</p><p>After it was over, Percy let out a breath he hadn't realized he had been holding. That had been far too easy to do, and it worried him. His powers were growing, but he didn't want them to. He had to concentrate on only that small amount of water so that he didn't accidentally burst the pipes running all throughout the walls. When he wasn't using his powers, Percy could contain his reach and not make anything explode, but when he let the water in, it was like a sensory overload. You would be surprised how much water runs through a skyscraper.</p><p>"Yeah. That's what I do," Percy shrugged, sitting back down and choosing to ignore the awed stares he was getting from most of the Avengers.</p><p>"He's just being modest! He can do so much more awesome stuff! Like when he and Jason created–" Leo began.</p><p>"Leo! Stop talking!" Piper yelled, noticing Percy's discomfort.</p><p>Leo would have been grumbling if he could open his mouth, but he couldn't.</p><p>"Those are some basic abilities we have. We are all trained in combat and in various weaponry. I'm best with a dagger, but I can use just about anything you give me," Annabeth steered the conversation away from Percy.</p><p>Her boyfriend sent her a grateful look.</p><p>"Can you show us a little something?" Natasha asked.</p><p>"Sure," Annabeth answered, pulling a celestial bronze dagger (not the one Luke gave her, of course) from her thigh-strap.</p><p>She aimed it at the small space under Tony's arm, and quicker than anyone but a demigod could notice, she threw it with perfect accuracy. It lodged itself in the couch in that small space, not even nicking Tony one bit.</p><p>"Hey!" Tony exclaimed, eyes widening.</p><p>"You're fine," Clint rolled his eyes.</p><p>"So...yeah. That's us. You'll learn more about our fighting styles as we fight together, but that should be enough for now. Well, you should know one more thing: Percy can't use a bow. At all. Don't even let him NEAR one. Got it? Good," Annabeth said.</p><p>"I love you, too, Wise Girl," Percy remarked.</p><p>"Uh-huh," Annabeth mumbled teasingly, leaning into his side.</p><hr/><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I hope you like this chapter! I'll try to be better at updating, but we both know that's a lie. This would not be possible without my beta reader, nightskywithrainbows, so show them some love! Remember to comment, subscribe, and leave kudos! Stay safe and happy reading!</p><p>- your author</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. percy gets mad</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>*peaks from behind vibranium shield* Hello? I guess there isn't any excuses- actually no! I do have a good excuse this time (besides laziness). I have a back injury and have kinda been in pain for a while now and when I finally got it checked out professionally, they told me I had developed scoliosis from sleeping on my stomach. So, kids, remember, sleep on your side! </p><p>Anyways, this chapter is a kinda short one, but a lot of character growth happens and relationships are formed and...stuff. So, yeah, I hope you guys like it! Comment, subscribe, and leave kudos! Stay safe and happy reading! </p><p>- your author</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"So what do we know?" Annabeth asked as they reentered the meeting room from before.</p><p>Everyone else filed in and sat down before Steve answered her. "Well, the attacks seem to be random, but very damaging. The green fire is practically uncontrollable, and the terrorists have threatened to do something worse, with a lot more power. We have no way of tracking the attacks, and we're clueless on where to start."</p><p>Percy noticed that Annabeth had the crinkle between her brows again, which meant that she was thinking hard. So, he sat back in his chair and waited for her to figure this whole thing out.</p><p>"So you know nothing?" Jason asked, sitting forward and scanning through the information projected.</p><p>Annabeth was studying a map of the attacks, and her brain was on overdrive. She may not be able to throw fire, or fly, but she could figure out just about any pattern. This one didn't take long to find.</p><p>She hummed, "Not necessarily. I think I know the pattern of the attacks. Plus, we know how to deal with the green fire. Or, at least, Leo does."</p><p>Leo got a crazy grin, making Hazel extremely worried about what was going through his head. With him it could be anything.</p><p>"What's the pattern then?" Tony asked, obviously skeptical.</p><p>"Oh my gods," Percy muttered, realizing what the pattern was with horror.</p><p>"What? What is it?!" Tony exclaimed, clearly not enjoying being left out.</p><p>Percy and Annabeth seemed to be the only demigods who had figured it out, so they exchanged another silent conversation with each other. The only way to explain the pattern was to possibly let slip the gods' existence, and that was not an option. Annabeth thought that they should at least TRY to tell them, but Percy was adamant on not saying another word. He still wasn't completely trusting of SHIELD, and he had had even less interaction with the Avengers. He had absolutely no reason to trust them yet.</p><p>Finally, with one last chilling glare from Annabeth, Percy relented with a sigh and a nod. Everyone else in the room looked at them with either confused, or exasperated expressions.</p><p>"Those locations are all important parts of–our world. Clearly, someone is trying to send us a message, and it's not a nice one," Annabeth said.</p><p>"So these attacks...they're targeted at you guys? And the people there are only getting caught in the crossfire?" Natasha clarified, insinuating that this was the demigods' faults.</p><p>"We're trying to save them. This is not our fault," Frank said.</p><p>Percy's mind had already wandered away from the conversation. He was filled up with guilt. All those people, it was his fault.</p><p>His mind went back to that night at the Brooklyn Bridge. Percy had been so distracted saving the bridge that his thoughts slipped right past what Marlin had told him! He remembered what the mortal had been saying...it was so obvious now! They had been threatening the gods, and wanting them to reveal themselves! This really WAS all his fault. He could've stopped this way earlier if he had taken the time to notice everything.</p><p>"Percy! Snap out of it!" Jason yelled, breaking him out of his trance.</p><p>"Huh?" Percy said.</p><p>"Seaweed Brain," Annabeth rolled her eyes in exasperation, "I asked you if you can remember anything from the Brooklyn Bridge?"</p><p>He paled and started stuttering, "Oh, well, not really. I mean, it was pretty dark...and loud."</p><p>Tony scoffed, "How would the kid know anything about what happened there?"</p><p>Annabeth scowled and directed her icy gaze at Tony, "He saved it, you βλάκας."</p><p>"Annabeth, it's fine," Percy assured, "I do remember something, anyways. The mor–bomber was talking about how the people were blind to the truth. And it was a normal guy with the bomb."</p><p>"Blind to what truth, though?" Bruce sighed, rubbing his forehead.</p><p>The demigods shared a look. This investigation was already testing their ability to keep the secret.</p><p>"No idea..." Jason lied.</p><p>The Avengers didn't look believing, but they kept silent.</p><p>Tony clapped his hands, "Welp! Nice chat! Let's revisit this later, m'kay? The kids can go get settled now, anyway."</p><p>Piper said, "We're not kids!", at the same time Annabeth protested, "We're not staying here!"</p><p>"We're a team, for now. We need to get used to each other if we're gonna be effective in battle. And we don't have any way of contacting you otherwise," Steve pointed out.</p><p>"But we have lives!" Percy insisted.</p><p>He knew his mom would freak if she found out he was staying with the Avengers. In her eyes, they only brought trouble, and he had enough of that as it was.</p><p>"Sorry, kid. This isn't a debate. You're staying here," Clint declared, clapping Percy on the shoulder as he walked out.</p><p>Percy got up and was about to protest when Annabeth stood and whispered in his ear, "Perce. Calm down. It's fine. We'll just call Sally and tell her what's going on. We don't want to cause a scene."</p><p>She gave him a pointed look before glancing over at the water dispenser in the corner, which was currently shaking around like it was in the center of an earthquake. Percy's shoulders sagged in defeat, and he walked out without another word.</p><p>The rest of the demigods followed silently, having been in a situation like this before. None of them knew what had happened down in Tartarus, but they did know it did something to Percy and Annabeth's heads. They weren't the same people when they came back, and that was to be expected, but it was different.</p><p>The Seven knew they were keeping a secret from them, but they didn't want to push them, so they never asked. All they could figure out was that it had something to do with Percy's powers. He had avoided using them, when he used to use them for everyday tasks like washing the dishes.</p><p>"Where are we going?" Leo asked when he realized nobody knew where they were headed, only that they were following Percy's purposeful strides.</p><p>"The pool," Annabeth answered, reading her boyfriend's mood.</p><p>The only way to calm him down when he got like this was water. He had sensed the pool and immediately been drawn to it. Plus, with the money Tony Stark had, the pool had to be incredible.</p><p>Percy wasn't angry at anyone, though it could be perceived that way. He was mad at himself. In Annabeth's opinion, he had done nothing wrong, but Percy was still disappointed with himself. He had lost control, even in just a small way. That was his fault. It shouldn't have been happening.</p><p>Whenever this happened, Annabeth always reminded herself what Posiedon had said all those years ago- "The sea does not like to be restrained."</p><p>Percy was fighting his nature, and it was fighting back. He had to accept it, and she knew that. He never wanted Annabeth to watch him lose it again, so he was choosing to not use his powers at all. But that was just going to lead to an explosion when he finally let go, and that isn't any better.</p><p>Annabeth had tried to talk to him about this before, but he had always shut the conversation down before she could get any good points in. It had grown futile to try, so she just let him deal with it in his own way, only helping him when he directly asked.</p><hr/><p>"What do you think about them?" Steve asked Natasha as they sat down in the kitchen, "The kids, I mean."</p><p>Steve, Natasha, and Clint had all made their way to the kitchen after the meeting had ended. They were sitting down at the kitchen island, discussing their new teammates. It was hard to tell if they should trust them.</p><p>"I don't trust them. They're obviously hiding something, and they don't seem like they're planning on telling us what it is," she answered.</p><p>"That's true...but everyone's entitled to their secrets. I'm sure you have plenty you keep from us," Steve countered.</p><p>The spy didn't seem to have an answer to that. It was true, she kept many secrets from her team, but they weren't her only team. She was an agent of SHIELD, and that meant keeping secrets for a living. Some that were much more important than that of a couple teeangers.</p><p>"They're teenagers. What's the biggest thing they could be hiding?" Clint cut in, voicing Natasha's thoughts.</p><p>"Exactly," she said, "They need to tell us more than what they are for me to be willing to work with them, especially if it means breaking the law. We're technically putting minors at risk. I, out of everyone, should know not to underestimate people based on age, but these kids' pasts don't show any evidence pointing towards them being trained."</p><p>She didn't really care that much about that part, but she figured saying it would turn Steve onto their side. He would be useful in finding out the kids' secrets.</p><p>With a sigh, he relented, "You're right. But we'll deal with this later, okay? First, we need the kids to trust us. That means no snooping!"</p><p>"Yeah," Clint nodded, "Also, where did the kids go?"</p><p>"To get settled," Steve answered.</p><p>"Actually, sir, they are currently residing in the pool room. It seems that Mr. Jackson might be drowning," JARVIS spoke, as if he hadn't just revealed the possible-death of one of their newest teammates.</p><p>Steve shot up in concern and ran out of the room in the direction of the pool. Clint jogged after him in a slightly more leisurely manner. Natasha stood up as well, but stayed in the room.</p><p>"JARVIS, bring up the video footage of the pool room," she ordered.</p><p>The AI pulled up the footage in a hologram in front of her, and she saw what he had been talking about. Six of the teenagers were around the pool, with either their feet dipping in or tossing a ball back and forth. The seventh one, Perseus, was at the bottom of the pool, lying down on his back in complete calm. He appeared to be sleeping, or even meditating. Nevertheless, she rushed towards the pool as well. She was interested in what was going to happen.</p><p>If he was really dying, his friends were bound to notice, so it had to be something to do with his powers. If he could breathe underwater, he could be a real asset.</p><p>She was able to get there just as Steve and Clint were rushing up to the kids out of the water, who seemed shocked by their presence and general panic.</p><p>"What are you doing?!" Steve shouted, taking off his coat in preparation of jumping in.</p><p>Annabeth caught on to what he thought had happened, and smirked. She wasn't sure whether she should give into the temptation to just let him do it, or to let him know Percy was fine. The former would be way more entertaining.</p><p>But also...she wasn't sure if Percy had fully cooled down yet. He could be quite snappy after he lost control.</p><p>Before she could come to a conclusion, Clint had walked up to her and repeated Steve's prior exclamation, "What are you doing?!"</p><p>"I'm sitting by the pool. Why?" she responded, giving him an innocent look.</p><p>"Your boyfriend is DROWNING!" Steve exclaimed, "And you're just sitting there!"</p><p>Leo snorted, "Percy? He's fine."</p><p>"Yeah, he's fine. Can't you see?" Hazel pointed to Percy's relaxed form.</p><p>Steve came to the conclusion that he had already passed out, and that he needed to take action quickly, so he dived in. When he got to where Percy was, he grabbed his arm and was about to pull him up when the teen's eyes snapped open in alarm. He turned to see who had disturbed him and saw it was Steve, causing confusion to lace with his features.</p><p>"Captain Rogers?" he asked, his voice coming through surprisingly clear in the water.</p><p>Now it was Steve's turn to look bewildered. His oxygen was running out, and Percy seemed to notice it. With a recognition flashing through his eyes, Percy grabbed STEVE'S arm and propelled them up until they burst through the surface, landing on the side of the pool. Steve coughed up some water while Percy looked around at the group of heroes now staring at them.</p><p>"What?" he asked, glancing at Clint and Natasha, who were sporting similar looks of confusion and shock.</p><p>The rest of the Seven were just standing there, amused. It was always funny to watch new people discover what Percy could do. It happened all the time when a new camper came to camp, and it never got old.</p><p>"Seaweed Brain, they didn't know you could breathe underwater," Annabeth answered him with fond exasperation.</p><p>"Oooooh!" he said, "Well, I can breathe underwater. That all?"</p><p>"Yes. But we're having dinner soon, so clean up and meet us in the kitchen," Steve answered, just realizing that Percy was still fully clothed, and dry.</p><p>He didn't even want to ask though. That would just give him an even larger headache that he didn't need.</p><p>"You got it, boss," Leo mock-saluted, "We'll be there soon."</p><p>The Seven's lips quirked up at their friend's antics, and at the fact that Steve seemed really overwhelmed and confused.</p><p>As soon as the adults were gone, the teeangers burst out in laughter for a full minute. It may be hard to get much past the Avengers, but finding humor in odd situations was what demigods did best. They were always in odd situations.</p><p>"Come on, guys. Let's see what the mighty Avengers eat for dinner," Annabeth said, leading the group out the door.</p><hr/><p>When they got to the kitchen, the demigods saw that the Avengers had all seated themselves around the kitchen island and were grabbing pieces of pizza from multiple boxes. There appeared to be 10 boxes in total, which was not going to cut it with Leo and Percy's appetites.</p><p>"Are there any dairy-free options?" Frank asked, shifting his feet in discomfort.</p><p>Annabeth had almost forgotten he was lactose-intolerant. He rarely made a big deal of it, so it had just slipped her mind. Not many demigods liked to talk about any possible weaknesses.</p><p>"You're lactose-intolerant?" Clint exclaimed. The way he said it made it seem like it was the craziest thing he'd heard.</p><p>"Yes, he is. Now can you answer the question?" Hazel sighed.</p><p>She didn't understand why every little thing with these Avengers had to take so long. It was a simple yes or no answer here. They either had something for Frank to eat, or they didn't!</p><p>"Uh...sure. In the fridge. We have a salad I think," Steve answered for his team.</p><p>"Thanks," Frank muttered before going to the fridge and pulling out a salad kit.</p><p>Salads weren't the most filling food, especially for demigods, but they had learned to eat what they got, so Frank quickly made his dinner and moved to stand next to Hazel.</p><p>The Avengers had taken all but one of the seats, and that was taken up by Leo so he could try to talk to Tony. The other demigods were either leaning up against the counter or sitting on the countertop.</p><p>After everyone had gotten their food and started eating, everything was silent except for the chewing. Nobody knew what to say. Steve had ordered them to all be there so they could try to "bond," but no bonding had been initiated yet. It was only a matter of time, though, because when you put a large group of mostly-ADHD demigods in one room, there's no way it stays quiet for long.</p><p>Sure enough, Leo let out a frustrated sigh and started talking, "Can someone talk please? I hate silence."</p><p>That made Piper let out a snort, "Understatement of the century."</p><p>Instead of being mad at his friend for teasing him, Leo just smiled his mischievous grin and spoke again, "I know what could liven this dinner up a bit."</p><p>"Leo, no. Whatever you're planning, just no," Annabeth ordered, but she knew it was futile.</p><p>Leo slowly started to lift up a single pepperoni from his pizza, pulling his arm back in a throwing position, aimed, and let it fly. It hit Piper smack-dab in the center of her forehead, sliding down until it was clinging to her shirt, leaving a trail of red, oozing sauce.</p><p>If it were possible, Piper had steam coming out her ears, "You're gonna pay for that, metalhead!"</p><p>And before anyone could stop her, Piper let her charmspeak go, "Dump that entire pizza over your head and wear it like a hat, Leo."</p><p>The way she said it, Percy almost wanted to do it himself. If she had not added Leo's name at the end, he was sure he would've.</p><p>Leo got a glazed-over look in his eyes before his limbs performed the task. Piper seemed like she wanted to do more, but the look she got from Jason shut her up. She grumbled something about 'goody-goody sons of Jupiter' under her breath.</p><p>The Avengers had been watching the interaction with inquisitive eyes. They had hoped it would lead to more understanding of their new comrades, but no such luck; only more confusion.</p><p>"Do you always use your powers for everyday activities?" Natasha asked, going into spy-mode.</p><p>She wanted to make these kids squirm, and maybe then they would tell them something. If she had to act like she thought she was above them, then so be it. Lots of the Avengers, used their powers for simple things, anyways.</p><p>Piper didn't even bat an eyelash. She had been dealing with stuff like this from police officers and teachers, and many other adults, for a long time, and she knew what Natasha was trying.</p><p>"Yes," she answered simply, a sweet smile on her face.</p><p>Natasha's fake icy glare turned into a real one. Piper glared right back. They did this without breaking eye contact for two minutes, rebuilding the tension up.</p><p>Before it could get too bad, Percy broke in, "Nice pool."</p><p>"Oh, yeah! Percy can breathe underwater! Did you know that?" Clint made a spectacle of telling Bruce and Tony.</p><p>"You can? How? Do you have gills, or is it a different kind of filtration inside your body? The scientific possibilities ALONE could–" Bruce was cut off by Tony.</p><p>"Easy, Big Green. It's cool, but not that cool," Tony said.</p><p>Annabeth didn't like someone undermining any of her friend's skills, let alone her boyfriend, so she turned to whisper in Percy's ear, "Do it."</p><p>She didn't even have to say what she was referring to. Percy had been watching her, and he saw her glance around the room before her eyes zeroed in on the can of Coke sitting in Tony's hand.</p><p>Percy smiled. He may not like doing big things with his powers, but if it was for payback and something small, he was very willing.</p><p>Tony didn't know the teens well enough to notice their subtle changes, and that was going to cost him. The rest of the Seven had all shifted until they were on the metaphorical edge of their seats, and Percy had moved so he was sitting up straight.</p><p>Natasha and Clint seemed to be the only ones who had noticed any change at all. They were glancing at each other nervously, wondering what the kids could possibly be planning. This might be the thing that made them right about the teenagers having too much power for their maturity level.</p><p>With a simple flex of his power, the coke in Tony's bottle exploded from its can and right into his face. The Seven all burst out in uncontrollable laughter.</p><p>All of the Avengers had either joined them, or at least smiled.</p><p>Tony was sputtering and furiously wiping his face with a napkin while simultaneously glaring at the son of Poseidon, who only smirked in response.</p><p>"This is why I hate kids," Tony grumbled as he walked out the room, no doubt to take a shower.</p><p>"So you can control more than just water?" Clint asked, voicing both his and Natash's thoughts.</p><p>The mood dropped quickly back to awkward, and Percy stood up before answering, "Yeah, I guess. I'm just gonna go...to bed...now. Bye."</p><p>Annabeth left with him, and the rest of the Seven trickled out after them.</p><p>Steve turned to glare at Clint and Natasha for ruining their plan before leaving, too.</p><p>Back with the demigods, they had all stopped in the hallway outside their rooms, which were all next to each other.</p><p>"Meet in Percy's room at midnight. We need to talk," Annabeth ordered.</p><p>"Got it, boss," Leo saluted before disappearing into his room.</p><p>The rest of the group went into their respective room without another word, leaving just Annabeth and Percy standing there. Annabeth took one look at his baby seal eyes, and nodded, following him into his room and onto his bed.</p><p>They both cuddled up together, Annabeth tucking her head under Percy's chin as he pulled her close to him. Being together like this was more than just a nice thing for the couple, it helped the nightmares, and eased the effects of bad days like today. She knew they had to meet the others at midnight, but they had a few hours before that, and a little nap never hurt.</p><p>Soon, Percy was snoring next to her. Annabeth lay awake for only a few more minutes, her head resting on his chest. The beat of his heart filled her mind, soothing her worry. It acted as her lullaby, assuring her he was alive and well. Despite being in unfamiliar surroundings in an unfamiliar bed, she fell into Morpheus' realm quickly, at home in Percy's arms.</p><hr/><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Remember, this is also on FF, Wattpad, Tumblr, Inkitt, and Webnovel!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. some badass demigod training!!</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Hello, and welcome back to...my horrible explanation for being absent! Coming up on this episode, you'll see me explain that I had my first 2 lacrosse games of the season and was left with bruised ribs. If anyone ever says that women's lax isn't a real sport cuz there isn't contact, you can tell them that someone from a fanfic website said they had bruised ribs from playing. </p><p>Anyway, I hope you like this chapter. We're starting to get some actual plot movement I think so have fun with that. Honestly, I kinda forgot what happened in here so...yeah. Please comment, subscribe, and leave kudos!! Stay safe &amp; happy reading!</p><p>- your author</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Percy and Annabeth woke up to the sound of a startled shout. Frank's startled shout, to be specific. They both shot up right away, their battle instincts kicking in, but Frank had seen enough.</p><p>"Seriously guys!? Again?" he exclaimed.</p><p>"Nothing happened!" Annabeth reassured, "We just fell asleep!"</p><p>"We did kiss a little," Percy muttered, and Annabeth shot him a death glare.</p><p>"Not. Helping," she whispered scathingly.</p><p>A sense of complete déjà vu washed over Percy. Except this time, the rest of the Seven were standing in the doorway, watching on with various amused expressions on their faces.</p><p>"Oh, this is perfect. Coach Hedge is gonna love this," Leo smiled in maniacal glee.</p><p>"No, Leo," Piper ordered, "You're not going to do that. Instead, we are going to get this meeting over with so I can get some sleep."</p><p>"Aw...you ruin all my fun!" he exclaimed.</p><p>"Someone's gotta do it when Calypso isn't here," Piper said.</p><p>It was true. Calypso and Piper are probably the only ones who could actually control Leo. Calypso because of Leo's fear of losing her or just general fear of her, and Piper because of her charmspeak.</p><p>"Ok! That's enough. We're getting sidetracked. We need to start this meeting." Jason clapped his hands to get everyone's attention.</p><p>He gave Percy a meaningful look; one which said to 'take it from here.' So Percy did.</p><p>"Um, well, Annabeth and I wanted to talk to you guys about what's been going on. We need to come to an agreement on what we are allowed to say and do with the Avengers. I don't think we should show them the full extent of our powers because it seemed like those spies were looking for a reason to lock us up," he started, "And I'm not particularly fond of being put in a cell. How about you?"</p><p>"Yeah. And we need to figure out a way to deal with the bombings without them figuring us out. The mortals seemed pretty Hades-bent on releasing the big secret, and that never bodes well for people like us. I know that we need their help, but I don't trust them." Annabeth said.</p><p>"We can just say we were born with the powers, and have no idea why. I mean, it's technically true," Jason offered.</p><p>The others all nodded in agreement.</p><p>"Ok, now what about the pattern? What is it?" Piper asked.</p><p>"All of the places are big parts of the Greek and Roman world. Brooklyn Bridge is near Manhattan, the home of the Gods, Portland: Mt. St. Helens, where Typon used to be held, LA: entrance to Hades, Long Island: Camp Half-blood, and San Francisco: Camp Jupiter," Annabeth answered.</p><p>"Woah," Jason whispered, shocked.</p><p>"Yeah, but that's not our biggest concern. We also need to figure out how to hide our identities from the world while we're fighting with the Avengers," Annabeth said.</p><p>Everyone else there hadn't even thought of that. It comes in real handy to have a daughter of Athena around sometimes. Ok, not sometimes, all the time. All of them would be really dead without her quick thinking and planning.</p><p>"Um, I could try to see if the Aphrodite cabin could cook something up?" Piper suggested, "But most of them are still getting used to fighting, so they won't really know what to make. They need help with the designs."</p><p>Leo shot up from where he had slumped down into the desk chair, "I can help! Well, the Hephaestus cabin can. We can help design it so it's battle-ready."</p><p>"Good. We'll need those soon, I think. I have a feeling that we're going to have a lead soon, so we need to be ready when it comes. This is just one quest, so there is no need for people to think we're some kind of superheroes," Annabeth said.</p><p>"Aw! But I already had a name picked out!" Leo exclaimed.</p><p>He looked like he was about to let them in on his superhero name, but Annabeth held up a hand with a glare that clearly said to not speak unless he wanted to lose some very important parts of him. That kept him quiet, for sure.</p><p>"Is that all?" Frank asked, towering over them all.</p><p>"For now, yes. Remember, say the absolute minimum and stick to twisting the truth. If you reveal any new information without the others knowing, call a meeting to let us know," Annabeth confirmed, nodding her head.</p><p>"Great, now I can go back to sleep," Percy said, pulling Annabeth back down with him.</p><p>The others filed out soon after that, already hearing Percy's soft snores as they left and returned to their respective rooms. Ok, so Jason and Piper stayed in the same room like Percy and Annabeth did, but nothing happened. It was just nice to be in the arms of someone who cares about you, you know?</p><p>Ω ♆ Ω</p><p>"Up and at 'em, kiddos! It's training day!" Tony gleefully exclaimed over the speakers that Percy was absolutely sure he did not see in his room.</p><p>Percy groaned when he saw what time it was: 6:00 AM. He knew he wasn't allowed to (and that it was wrong, of course), but he wanted to kill Tony so badly in that moment. It would be quick! Nobody would suffer!</p><p>But, alas, he had to actually work with the man-child. It might not come off like it, but Percy takes war very seriously, and this was starting to feel like a war. Or at least, it would become one if they didn't stop it soon. And to do that, they needed the Avengers, apparently.</p><p>That was the only reason that he followed Annabeth in getting up and ready for the day. He took a little longer than Annabeth, but at 6:30 AM, they were stepping out of his room. They saw that the others were slowly doing the same. They were all tired. There weren't any big dream incidents, but that doesn't mean that staying up until midnight and then waking up at six in the morning won't do something to you. Even Leo looked exhausted, with big puffy eyes from rubbing them in an attempt to wake himself up quicker. If Leo Valdez was tired, then you knew that it was too early for this.</p><p>Also, you have to remember that they'reteenagers. Teenagers aren't meant to be up super early- it's a scientific fact, Percy thinks. Annabeth once told him something about their melatonin not releasing until later at night, so they could stay up and sleep in later.</p><p>What? Percy pays attention to what she's saying sometimes.</p><p>"I hate Tony," Piper grumbled, practically falling asleep on Jason.</p><p>"You and us all, chica," Leo mumbled before letting out a huge yawn.</p><p>"What did he say was going on? Training?" Jason asked, looking over at Annabeth for answers because she seemed the most awake of the group.</p><p>"Yep. Training, whatever that entails. I don't know, so be prepared for anything. I really hope it has nothing to do with electronics, but knowing our luck, and how Tony has been so far, it will, so just try not to get too close," she answered.</p><p>Leo tiredly saluted her, "Yes, ma'm."</p><p>Hazel rolled her eyes, "Come on, Repair Boy."</p><p>She grabbed his arm and started leading the way towards the living room, which was their best guess at where the Avengers were.</p><p>As they were walking, they were interrupted by the disembodied voice of JARVIS, "Excuse me, but I was told to direct you to the training room, where the Avengers are currently assembled and waiting for you. Shall I proceed?"</p><p>All of the demigods were still really weirded-out by the AI, and there was no way it was ending soon. It's just a reminder that they were currently in a building basically composed entirely of technology, one of their greatest liabilities. Liabilities were a dangerous thing in their lives.</p><p>"Yes..." Percy answered hesitantly, unsure where to look.</p><p>"Then please follow the arrows projected on the ground, sir," JARVIS said.</p><p>Sure enough, there were large white arrows pointing them away from the living room, so they followed them. It was about a two minute walk to the elevators, where they were told to go to the 60th floor, which was apparently one whole training room by itself.</p><hr/><p>"So let me get this straight, you guys want us to...play a video game?" Frank asked, gesturing to the giant room around them.</p><p>The Seven were quickly ushered by the Avengers into a big room with a bunch of white, padded tiles all around them as soon as they had reached the training floor. There was only a viewing window and an exit that disappeared when the door was closed. Then, Tony explained what they were going to be doing. None of them really understood it yet.</p><p>"No! I want you to fight the LMDs! The robots! They will simulate different levels of skill to evaluate your skills. Understand?" Tony punctuated each word, quickly losing any sense of patience he had started with.</p><p>"Yeah. We got it," Annabeth sighed.</p><p>Ok, she was sure she was the only one of them who realized that they were about to break one of the rules they established last night on the first day. They were about to fight robots. TECHNOLOGY.</p><p>This should go well, Annabeth thought.</p><p>Steve interrupted before Tony could make a snarky comment, "Good. We'll start with fighting separately and then together as a group. Afterwards, we'll see how you work with different weapons."</p><p>"Aye aye, Cap," Leo joked.</p><p>"Leo, focus. We're about to fight ROBOTS." Annabeth tried to get the son of Hephaestus to understand the severity of the situation. "You have a back-up plan, right?"</p><p>He could talk to machines. Robots were machines. Therefore, he should be able to get them out of this mess if anything went wrong.</p><p>He gave her a nod of understanding, and Annabeth settled back into her natural stance rather than her tense one. Well, she's always tensed for battle. At least in her natural one it's less obvious.</p><p>"Alright, who wants to go first?" Tony asked over the intercom.</p><p>"Uncle Leo will go first, right?" Percy joked, referencing to one of Leo's favorite nicknames for himself.</p><p>"Sure! I just need to know how much damage I'm allowed to do," Leo said, looking up at the Avengers.</p><p>Annabeth was shocked that he had even thought to ask that, and apparently the Avengers were, too.</p><p>"Um, just let go. There's nothing you can do to break this room. I designed it myself," Tony answered, still arrogant even through his confusion.</p><p>"Come on out, the rest of you," Natasha instructed.</p><p>Once the rest of the demigods had exited the room and stood next to the Avengers at the viewing window, Tony pressed a button on a screen that made a compartment in the walls of the room open up, revealing a row of floating LMDs.</p><p>"Now, I'm going to start you at Level 2, okay? It gets harder as you move up. The LMDs should stay the same form throughout every level, though. Ready?" Tony said.</p><p>Leo pulled his war hammer from his magical toolbelt and lit it and his arms on fire, "Ready."</p><p>Tony had to shake himself out of his shock before he pressed the start button, but when he did, every one of the mortal heroes had sat on the edge of their metaphorical seats, eager to see just how powerful these kids could be.</p><p>Plus, the kid had just pulled a giant war hammer from his normally-sized toolbelt, and then proceeded to light himself and the hammer on fire. They were bound to be curious after that display.</p><p>They knew the very basics of the young heroes' abilities, but most of that stuff was based on just what they had been told. Actual, visible proof is what they wanted.</p><p>All at once, the LMDs transformed into the Avengers minus the Hulk. Repeat, they changed into the Avengers. Leo had to fight a copy of the Avengers, alone.</p><p>Percy was freaking out inside. Sure, he trusted his friend, but Leo was a joker, and he tended to not understand how serious things were. In this case, he hoped that didn't happen.</p><p>"This should be interesting," Natasha remarked.</p><p>"No, this should be terrible. Tony, you never told me you were using this setting," Bruce said, rushing up to the other scientist, "He's just a kid."</p><p>"I think they've made it clear they aren't just kids, Jolly Green. It's fine. If they wanted to be treated like the rest of us, then they need to pass this test," Tony said.</p><p>Bruce looked like he wanted to say a lot more, but Jason stepped up to stop him, "He'll be fine, Dr. Banner. Leo may not look it, but he's powerful and he's smart. He can handle this."</p><p>Jason looked so sure of himself that it was enough to convince the doctor that it would be okay.</p><p>In truth, Jason had no idea how this program worked. There was a good chance that Leo did not, in fact, have this handled.</p><p>While this was being discussed, Leo had already started to fight the Iron Man LMD. He was currently alternating between swinging his hammer at it and firing balls of fire. The LMD had only been hit a couple of times because it kept maneuvering around the attacks by flying away.</p><p>It was getting tiresome, and Leo wanted it to be over with. So, he dropped his hammer and set a determined look on his face, glaring up at the robot.</p><p>The Seven were grinning, already figuring out what was happening, while the Avengers were just plain confused. What was the kid gonna do? Glare them to death?</p><p>Then, Leo started grinning and they knew it was all over.</p><p>He crouched down onto the ground and placed a hand on the floor, closing his eyes in concentration. The LMDs seemed to be as confused as their originals.</p><p>Three seconds passed before Leo's grin grew even more, and then he spoke a single word, "Stop."</p><p>And they did. Every single LMD lost their form and fell to the ground, limp and unmoving. Leo stood up, dusted his pants off, and turned to the viewing window to see his teammate's reactions.</p><p>They were priceless.</p><p>"That's how you do it," he said, "Am I done?"</p><p>Tony literally shook himself out of his stupor, "Yeah, sure. I need to reboot the LMDs."</p><p>When Leo came through the door, the rest of the demigods crowded him, patting him on the back and laughing at his dramatics.</p><p>"What was that?" Natasha demanded, breaking through the teens to tower over Leo's elf-like form.</p><p>Okay, maybe tower isn't the right word. She was taller than him, but not by much. Natasha was just very intimidating.</p><p>"Uh...fighting?" Leo tried.</p><p>Natasha's glare hardened, "You know that's not what I mean. What did you do to make the LMDs stop attacking?"</p><p>Leo glanced at Annabeth, who nodded in consent, "I talked to them."</p><p>"You did what?!" Tony exclaimed.</p><p>"I talked to them. They were pretty boring, to be honest, but I was able to shut them down," he answered.</p><p>Tony let out an incredulous laugh, "That's not possible! You can't just TALK to machines!"</p><p>"He can, and he did," Piper said, smiling proudly at her best friend.</p><p>"But–" Tony's voice died out.</p><p>"How come you never told us of this ability?" Natasha asked.</p><p>"You never asked," Percy answered simply, not liking her interrogatory tone at all.</p><p>The spy looked like she wanted to continue the conversation, but Clint whispered something in her ear and she stepped back with one last glare.</p><p>"Welp! That was fun! Who's next?" Tony clapped his hands.</p><p>Everyone turned to see that he had gotten the LMDs back online and back in the Avengers' form.</p><p>Piper sighed and started to walk to the door, "I guess I'll go next."</p><p>Before she could enter, Steve asked, "What weapon are you going to use? Your powers won't work on the robots."</p><p>Piper smirked at him over her shoulder before pulling Katoptris from its sheath on her thigh. Apparently, the Avengers had yet to fully break through the Mist, and they could not see her having that strapped there this entire time. But when she pulled it out, they seemed to finally be able to see it for what it truly was. It makes you wonder what they thought was there before. A ruler, maybe?</p><p>"I've got this," she stated before slipping into the training room.</p><hr/><p>It was obvious Piper had been taking more lessons on dagger-fighting with Annabeth. As soon as the first person attacked, she was slashing and stabbing like crazy. Her lithe form was swisting out of the way of punches from Steve's copy, while Clint's arrows were shooting at her from behind.</p><p>Tony had clearly upped the level of difficulty after seeing what Leo could do.</p><p>Piper ducked under one of the arrows, and then shot back up to land a finishing blow to the center of LMD-Steve's chest. Then, she ripped Katoptris out of the robot and turned to throw it at Clint's copy, which just barely managed to avoid getting stabbed.</p><p>She was running on pure adrenaline now. It was best to imagine these opponents as monsters. Sure, when they actually fought humans, they would need to not kill, but these were just robots.</p><p>Cilnt's robot shot it's last arrow, and it exploded right before her face, stunning her into stillness. In that couple of seconds it took for her to recenter herself, Natasha's copy jumped onto her back for a chokehold. Piper struggled, but the LMD had been designed to know all of Natasha's known skills, and it was working. The Iron Man LMD landed and shot a stunning shot at her chest: the final straw for Piper to finally surrender.</p><p>She knew they wouldn't kill her, but she was not in the mood to be knocked-out. It left you with a massive headache.</p><p>So she tapped out.</p><p>"Ok ok, I'm done. I'm done," She panted as she was released, rubbing her neck.</p><p>Piper was not happy about having to surrender, but it seemed like the Avengers had been thoroughly impressed with her skill with such a small weapon.</p><p>"I'll do next," Annabeth declared, high-fiving Piper on her way out.</p><p>"Good luck," Piper said.</p><p>"Don't need it," Annabeth responded, pulling out her drakon-bone sword.</p><p>Out in the control room, Tony said, "Is that a bone?!"</p><p>"It's whatever you want it to be," Hazel grinned, manipulating the Mist just a bit.</p><p>"You scare me sometimes, Miss Metal Detector," Leo muttered, glancing at Annabeth's sword, which had shifted into a machete.</p><p>He wasn't sure whether to be impressed by Hazel's skill, or weirded-out by Tony's brain.</p><p>"Make sure to move to difficulty up a bit," Percy told Tony, "She'll be insulted otherwise."</p><p>The billionaire seemed to be getting used to the teens' weird ways because he didn't even flinch when he heard that, and instead moved to comply.</p><p>"And...here we go," Tony said over the intercom, "Good luck, Annie."</p><p>"My name is Annabeth!" she shouted before going into the fight.</p><p>In this level, every single one of them attacked at once. Annabeth back-bended under Steve's copy's punch, and then kicked up into LMD-Natasha's face. After, she turned and sliced the Iron Man armor on the side, just under the armpit. She had picked that as a point of weakness before she had even stepped into the building.</p><p>"She's good," Natasha relented, watching as the daughter of Athena thrusted her sword into Steve's robot foot.</p><p>Seeing that Clint's LMD copy was not going to get any closer to her, Annabeth pulled out a hidden dagger and threw it in a perfect line to hit it in the center of its forehead. Then, she turned and blocked a punch from Natasha's robot, who had recovered from the face-hit. The spy copy used the Iron Man LMD to jump up and wrap her legs around Annabeth's neck, trying to do a scissor hold, which failed because Annabeth rolled forward, slamming Natasha's head into the ground. The left a big enough dent that the LMD wasn't getting back up.</p><p>That only left Iron Man to deal with.</p><p>She settled into a fighting stance, but didn't attack, choosing to wait for her opponent to make the first blow.</p><p>Percy was grinning. This was what they needed: a good way to blow off steam without it possibly ending with one of them dead.</p><p>"What is she waiting for?" Steve asked.</p><p>"She's playing with it. It's fun for her," Jason answered, "It's Annabeth."</p><p>Finally, the robot got impatient and attacked. It sent a stun blast at her, which Annabeth quickly avoided. After, she ran up to the wall, kicked off of it, and jumped up to drag the Iron Man LMD down to the ground, where she sat down on it and landed a few punches. But she quickly realized punching wasn't doing much good.</p><p>"Judo flip! Do the judo flip!" Leo exclaimed, jumping up and down in excitement.</p><p>When it wasn't him being the one attacked by Annabeth, it was super entertaining.</p><p>Annabeth sighed, but a smile was pulling at the edges of her lips. She hauled Iron Man up, who was still recovering from being slammed down to the ground, and got a good hold on it's arm. Then, she flipped it over her shoulder with an ease that only came from years of experience.</p><p>With a huge smile on her lips, and a last glance at her carnage, Annabeth walked back out to the control room.</p><p>"How was that for a kid?" She asked Natasha.</p><p>"Not bad," she got for an answer.</p><hr/><p>Jason, Hazel, and Frank's individual tests went-by pretty quickly. Jason electrocuted all of the robots, rendering them immobile.</p><p>After that, and with another new batch of LMDs, Hazel used her Spatha to slice and cut through the robots. In the end, it proved too hard for her to do it with just a sword, so she pulled a chunk of the wall out and smashed it against the LMDs until they were in many different pieces.</p><p>Frank ended up having to forfeit, but not before getting every single Avengers copy but Steve down. Steve ended up having him in a chokehold that was just too difficult to get out of. And Frank had already transformed into many animals, so he wasn't sure if he could've changed back if he had transformed again.</p><p>If it wasn't obvious, Percy was avoiding doing his turn. He was trying to stay in the corner, and out of the notice of any of the adults. However, that wasn't possible with two spies in the room. They notice everything.</p><p>"Percy? Your turn," Natasha said.</p><p>So much for that plan.</p><p>Percy hesitated, "Um...about that, I don't think I should go."</p><p>Natasha raised her eyebrows in mock-surprise, but it was actually Steve who spoke, "You have to go, son. In order to work well together, we need to know each other's strengths and weaknesses. This will never work without you doing this."</p><p>"Plus, we promise it's completely safe," Bruce added in.</p><p>Percy sighed, admitting that he wasn't going to be able to worm his way out of this one. Instead of fighting, he turned to whisper to Annabeth, "Don't let me get out of control."</p><p>Annabeth gave him a sad look, "Percy, I know you have control. I trust you. You just need to trust yourself. You would never hurt us. I know that for certain."</p><p>The Avengers were watching this interaction like hawks, but the other demigods were averting their attention. This happened sometimes, Percy and Annabeth going into their own world that only they could understand, and it was best to just let them be. Plus, privacy is a real thing people. The moment seemed almost too intimate for them to interrupt.</p><p>Percy still seemed to be having trouble believing Annabeth's statements, but he went into the training room without another protest. His shoulders were sagging in defeat, and he seemed to be folding in on himself. He was never one for attention, but that was a bit much in Leo's mind.</p><p>However, Leo and the rest of the Seven didn't have a full grasp on just how uncomfortable Percy as with using his powers now. They didn't know what happened in "that place."</p><p>"Are you ready, Percy?" Tony asked, readying the LMDs again.</p><p>"Yeah, I guess," Percy answered.</p><p>Annabeth was rocking back and forth on the balls of her feet, "Just breathe, Perce," she whispered under her breath, "You can do this."</p><p>She had to put on a brave face for her boyfriend, but she truly was terrified of Percy's potential. She had seen it first-hand in their trip underground, and it was nothing to be underestimated. The Avengers didn't know what powers they were playing with here. She only hoped that her insistent trust she was putting in Percy was going to amount to truth.</p><p>"We'll start you on Level 5? Based on what your friends can do, I think this will be a good start," Steve asked.</p><p>"Sure," Percy responded, bringing Riptide from his pocket.</p><p>"What's he going to do with a pen?" Bruce whispered to Clint.</p><p>The Seven all smiled at each other. Little did the mortals know, that pen was definitely not just a pen. It was always amusing when people saw what Riptide truly was for the first time.</p><p>"Alright. Here we go," Tony said, starting the simulation.</p><p>Percy closed his eyes, inhaled, exhaled, and popped the cap off of his pen. Opening his eyes, you could tell something had shifted in him. He was in his natural element now, and nobody could stop him from achieving his goal.</p><p>That goal just so happened to be mutilating some billionaire's robots.</p><p>"Let's have some fun," Percy said, charging the first LMD.</p><p>He was a flurry of motion. His fighting style was a mix from Greek, Roman, and modern martial arts that he had learned from Annabeth. He'd kick one adversary just to turn and thrust his sword into another one trying to attack him from behind.</p><p>"He's amazing," Bruce said in wonder, mesmerized by Percy's skill.</p><p>The son of Poseidon was relying only on his hand-to-hand and swordsmanship skills, rather than his powers, but that barely slowed him down. If the mortals wanted a display of his competence, then he would give them one.</p><p>Annabeth had a proud smile on her face as she watched Percy judo flip Natasha's robot over his shoulder and slammed it hard enough to the ground that it "died," ending his fight.</p><p>That had gone well, considering Percy's worries.</p><p>However, he knew better than to let his guard down just yet. As all demigods know, life never gives any breaks. That, and the Fates are cruel.</p><hr/><p>"Ok, guys. Let's take a lunch break, and then we'll do some more training, but this time, with only abilities," Steve said.</p><p>Percy had put his sword away, and was not standing in the viewing room with the rest of the heroes, mortal and demigod alike. All of the teens looked and felt exhausted, so it was a given to take a break.</p><p>"Got it, boss," Leo saluted, turning and exiting the room, heading no doubt in the direction of the kitchen.</p><p>"I guess that means we're leaving," Percy laughed. A real, genuine laugh.</p><p>It made Annabeth smile larger than she had in a long time. Improvement is always good.</p><p>Soon, everyone was gathered around the kitchen and living room area. Percy and Leo were scavenging for food while the Avengers and the rest of the Seven talked. So far, the hunt was not going as planned.</p><p>"Tony! Are you seriously telling me you're a billionaire, and you can't afford some decent Cheerios?!" Percy yelled.</p><p>"Yeah! Who goes grocery shopping around here?" Leo exclaimed, holding up the near-empty jug of milk.</p><p>The Avengers all looked at each other in confusion, "Who DOES go grocery shopping?" Bruce asked.</p><p>"Pepper, sometimes, I think. She must've been busy this week," Tony answered, "We can just order some Chinese or something for now."</p><p>"That should work, but if you're going to house these boys," Annabeth pointed to Percy, Leo, Jason, and Frank, "You're going to need a lot more food around at all times. Their appetites could rival that of an elephant."</p><p>Hazel let out a tiny laugh, realizing Annabeth's little pun about Frank. She received a small smirk in response.</p><p>"Teenagers," Tony muttered, rolling his eyes, "Always hungry."</p><p>"Now wait a second, Tony, I remember seeing you eat an entire large pizza by yourself just a couple weeks ago," Natasha remarked, smirking at her teammate.</p><p>Tony only glared in response, and then he told JARVIS to order lunch.</p><p>"Well, while we're waiting, I'll explain what our next exercise is," Steve said, "Basically, we're going to see and document your powers, but in a more controlled environment. You won't be fighting anything, but this will be more focused on precision than quantity. We need to know your full capabilities so that we know where to put you in a fight. Is that okay?"</p><p>He was asking their permission as more of a courtesy than an actual question, obviously, but the demigods still nodded their heads in confirmation. It wasn't like they couldn't leave at any time if things ever got too out-of-control.</p><p>Or at least, that's what they told themselves. In all honesty, nobody trusted each other yet. They could be shot down by the Avengers if they tried to run away, for all they knew, and that's what the scariest thing was. Neither group really KNEW the other group's intentions, only what they had told each other.</p><p>Everyone was walking on thin ice, whether it was known to them or not.</p><hr/><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I hope you liked it! Remember, this is also on FF, Wattpad, Inkitt, Webnovel, and Tumblr.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. the avengers are humbled</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Welcome back! I know it's been awhile but I hope I didn't lose too many of you. I just wanted to say thank you for all of the support I've been getting on all platforms. Honestly, I did not expect this story to take off the way it did. </p><p>Now that that's over, I'm gonna clarify something for SOME PEOPLE. I started writing this last October, which means that I have absolutely no interest in going back over already-edited work just to change a minor detail some people seem to find maddening. This chapter, I can say for certain, was written during December, so I don't always remember what happened. Okay?</p><p>This chapter is kinda just one big fluffy piece, but I love it so no hate pls.</p><p>Please remember to comment, subscribe, and leave kudos!</p><p>- you author</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"Okay! Assignments...Annabeth and Piper, go with Widow, Frank with Hawkeye, Hazel and Leo with Tony, and Jason and Percy with Bruce and I. Everyone okay with that?" Steve said.</p><p>"Yep."</p><p>"Got it, Cap."</p><p>"This should be fun..."</p><p>The heroes separated into their groups and stood, waiting for more orders from Captain America.</p><p>"As I said before, this is just to further evaluate and document your abilities. It shouldn't take long. That's it, get to work," He ordered, turning and walking towards the sparring pads with Jason, Percy, and Dr. Banner.</p><p>They were back on the training floor for the evaluations, after an uneventful lunch break. Well, unless you count Frank's disgust with the attempt at proper Chinese food as eventful.</p><hr/><p>Despite them being on the sparring mats, Percy and Jason would not be sparring. Even to someone who doesn't know the full extent of the sons of the Poseidon and Zeus' relationship, it's pretty obvious that they should not be allowed to fight each other. Their personalities are almost exact opposites; Carefree vs Serious.</p><p>"Just show us something we haven't seen from you before, and then we'll build from there," Bruce told the teens.</p><p>Percy and Jason looked at each other expectantly, waiting for the other to begin. Their powers were similar in the way that they could get out of hand quickly. Neither of them wanted to be the reason that the tower lost power or got flooded. Zeus knows it would be a mess to clean up.</p><p>After a whole two minutes of waiting for them to get started, Steve let out a sigh, "Oh, for God's sake! Jason, you go."</p><p>"Umm...let's see here," Jason muttered under his breath, looking around the room for inspiration, "Oh! I got it!"</p><p>He positioned himself a couple of feet away from a practice dummy and held his hands together in front of him. Taking a deep breath and imagining his goal, he let sparks fly around his hands. He let them grow for a couple of seconds before slowly starting to separate his hands. While doing this, he made sure a line of electricity was stable between his hands. He kept separating his hands until he couldn't anymore, and then he slowly released his grip on the line from his left hand. He made sure to keep feeding the lightning rod so that it held form.</p><p>Meanwhile, on the sidelines, Percy, Steve, and Bruce were all watching with equal amounts of shock. Percy had never seen or known Jason could do this, and Steve and Bruce were completely new to all of this. Then, Jason proceeded to shock them further.</p><p>He made the line of electricity into a whip. He made a lighting whip.</p><p>Percy was so proud of his friend's imagination. It was almost enough to make a grown demigod cry...</p><p>Jason readied his whip and struck the practice dummy, slicing it completely in half. Then, he turned to his group, smiling and making the lightning dissipate. It should've been illegal how easy he made it look, in Percy's opinion.</p><p>"Dude! That was awesome! I didn't know you could do that!" Percy exclaimed, slapping the son of Zeus on the back with a proud, blinding smile.</p><p>No matter what it seemed like sometimes, Percy was the big brother of the Seven.</p><p>"Yeah! That was pretty good, son," Steve said, nodding his head in appreciation, "Now we only need to get that process sped-up and it will be an amazing asset in a fight."</p><p>"This means you could do so much more with your abilities, including maybe providing infinite power, which we have been searching for for decades! You kids are truly lucky to have these powers," Bruce rattled off.</p><p>Percy whispered to Steve, "Does he get like this a lot?"</p><p>Steve nodded, "Yeah. I tend to tune-out the sciency rambling and just focus on stuff I can understand. He had Tony if he needs to bounce ideas off of someone, anyway."</p><p>"Got it," Percy said, "I guess this means I'm next?"</p><p>He had thought about this a lot during lunch, and had decided to go into the exercise with the comfort and ease he had possessed using his powers before Tartarus, and see where he got from there. Like Annabeth said, it was all in his head. He just needed to believe that he had control, and he would get it.</p><p>Simple, in theory.</p><p>"Yep. I want you to copy Jason, but with water," Steve said.</p><p>He gave more specific instructions to Percy because he felt like he needed that. He was a leader, and leaders need to notice and know what their troops need. Percy needed specifics because he was cautious with using his powers, and he wanted to know exactly what was needed of him before going in. That way there is no possibility of him losing control.</p><p>Once again, only in theory.</p><p>"Okay, Percy... you got this," Percy muttered to himself, bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet and cracking his neck.</p><p>He shook his hands out once before readying himself in a slightly-more relaxed version of Jason's stance. But this time, he did not hold his hands together. Instead, he reached his hands out towards the bucket of water the Avengers had brought to the sparring mats earlier. Taking a deep breath, he felt the barely-there familiar tug in his gut before a tendril of water was rising from the bucket and reaching towards his outstretched hands. Percy willed it to wrap around his arms and hands, and then he slowly put his hands together like he had seen Jason do (he wasn't quite sure how he planned to make the whip yet, so this seemed like the best bet). Taking another deep breath, he started separating his hands, but keeping a solid tendril of water stretched between them.</p><p>He tried to move slightly faster than his cousin did, just because of the ever present, unconscious competitiveness ingrained between them.</p><p>Finally, he let go with his left hand and let the water form into a whip in his right. It kept shape, but was more flexible than the rod had been. Percy turned to the other practice dummy and whipped it twice, forming two straight slices right through the rubber.</p><p>Everyone in their group stood in shock, including Percy after he had deposited the water back in the bucket. He hadn't known he could use a whip.</p><p><em>Must be another natural demigod thing,</em> he thought. Most weaponry came easy to him (except archery, of course).</p><p>It took a moment for them to recollect themselves, but Steve shook himself out of his stupor first, "That was...impressive, Percy. I didn't know you had such control over your powers."</p><p>The demigod in question shrugged modestly, "Yeah. I didn't really either, to be completely honest."</p><p>Jason surged forward and hung an arm around his friend, "Stop being so modest, Kelphead! That was amazing!"</p><p>Sure, Jason had done the same thing, but he hadn't gone through literal Hell and come back scarred forever, emotionally and physically. But mentioning that topic wasn't wise, so he stuck with just congratulating his older cousin.</p><p>"What else do you want us to do?" Percy asked Steve and Bruce, trying to move the attention off of him.</p><p>"Well...I guess just do a couple more small things with your powers and then we can be done. I think you've proved your point of not being newbies," he answered.</p><p>Percy and Jason smiled at each other once, then nodded at the Captain.</p><hr/><p>"Okay, Frank, let's see what you got! Any special skills besides turning into animals?" Clint asked.</p><p>Frank shifted from foot to foot, "Well, I'm pretty good at archery, I guess. Better than my swordsmanship, anyways."</p><p>Clint smirked, "You guess? If you're going to be on this team, you need to be completely sure of your skills. So let's see what you can do."</p><p>Frank had grabbed his bow and magical quiver during lunch because he figured he would need it for something during this exercise, so he only had to sling the bow over his shoulder to be ready. The quiver was designed by Leo to never run out of celestial bronze and imperial gold arrows. The celestial bronze ones were normal, and the imperial gold were exploding. A combination of both metals would shoot out hardening foam (also designed by Leo) to stop monsters. Or in this case, people.</p><p>He set himself up on the first line on the archery range, and let the arrow fly. It hit the bullseye dead-on. Frank turned to look at Clint to find him raising his eyebrows in appreciation.</p><p>"Good. But I'm not impressed until I see you do that from a longer distance and on the move, so let's work our way up there, huh? I'm interested in seeing if we can finally have another good archer on this team," Clint said.</p><p>Frank smiled, "I've been doing this practically my whole life, so I'd hope I was pretty good by now. Plus, I've been in battle before, shooting on the move."</p><p>There was the newfound confidence that still baffled a certain son of Poseidon after a whole year. You go into the deepest parts of Hades with a shy Canadian Baby Man, and then miraculously you make it out and the kid is taller, buffer, and much more confident.</p><p>"Sounds interesting... Any war stories you care to share with the class?" Clint asked, intrigued.</p><p>Frank's happy expression steeled over, "I think I'd rather keep those to myself, thank you. Maybe another time."</p><p>Clint nodded, but you could see he wasn't going to let that go. Frank had made a mistake saying he had seen battle before. It was pretty obvious that the teens had, but he had just confirmed it, therefore furthering the Avengers' curiosity.</p><p>So, basically, he had screwed them over further and faster.</p><p>With a great sigh, Frank went aimed and shot another arrow, choosing to ignore the awkwardness that had formed between the two archers.</p><hr/><p>Leo and Hazel were... unsure how to react to Tony's exercise, to say the least. They got over to their part of the room and their eyes immediately tunneled-in on the giant block of metal in the center. Nothing special about it besides the fact that it was black, and about four feet tall, and four feet wide. They weren't sure what to make of it.</p><p>Tony was beaming next to them, which was a sure sign of nothing good. It was pretty maniacal, too.</p><p>"Mr. Stark... what <em>exactly</em> are we doing with this?" Hazel asked.</p><p>Somehow, Stark's grin managed to widen even more before he answered with, "Oh, you know, a simple thing, really. I want to see something unique from both of you, so I brought this out of storage. I designed it years ago, not knowing what the hell I would be using it for, but it turns out my genius brain was just preparing me for this moment where I would evidently be training a bunch of teenagers... but anyway! This will mold to any specifications that I need it to, kinda like the LMDs. Just tell me what you're planning to do, and I'll program it to follow your needs."</p><p>Hazel raised her eyebrows at Tony's complete disregard for modesty. The others were not kidding when they said he was an arrogant mortal. She was even considering going all "I am your superior because of my divine blood" on him, but then she remembered that that would make her a huge hypocrite.</p><p>Leo, on the other hand, was starstruck. He was convinced that he could never come up with even half the stuff Tony invented. He was a true genius in every right. A role model of many Hephestus kids.</p><p>"So... who's going first?" Tony asked.</p><p>"I'll go!" Leo exclaimed, like an eager child vying for their father's attention.</p><p>"Great! That's the spirit! What're you gonna do?"</p><p>Leo thought about it, and then the perfect idea came to mind. It wasn't really using his usual extravagant and fiery powers, but it wasn't any less impressive. He wanted to impress Mr. Stark, and this was the way to do it.</p><p>"Make it the hardest safe to crack in the world," he answered, a, well, fire lighting up his eyes.</p><p>Tony was intrigued, that's for sure. It was pretty obvious what the kid was planning on attempting, but it would be just that: an attempt. Nobody could crack this safe. It was designed by himself personally to house some of his most secret projects for the Avengers. He was literally the only one in the world that even knew of its existence. There was no way Leo could pull off cracking that type of safe without <em>years</em> of preparation.</p><p>But, he still programmed the block to make itself into the safe. If anything, it would show these teens how not to underestimate Tony Stark.</p><p>"Okay, kid. Good luck," he said, and then whispered, "You're gonna need it."</p><p>Leo didn't comment on Tony's quieter remark, but he did smile wider at the prospect of a real challenge. Sure, he could come off as a little overconfident sometimes, but he really was smart and powerful when he tried. He just wasn't a serious child of Athena, he was a fun son of Hephaestus, and he would act as such.</p><p>Still, when the block turned into something he had never seen before, he took a deep breath, focused his mind on the task at hand, and got to work.</p><p>Tony was smiling wide over his shoulder, interested in seeing how far the kid could get, but little did he know, Leo had this under control. To someone who didn't know him, what he was doing would seem weird, but he was actually just listening to the machine. Yes, listening to it.</p><p>He had his ear pressed up against the safe, both hands pressed flat against it next to his head. Leo was already learning the mechanisms of it, and in no time, he would be able to tell the safe to open itself without even lifting a finger.</p><p>He was almost vibrating with excitement over how Tony would react. It was sure to be a show.</p><p>Sure enough, a little less than a minute later, there was a series of soft clicking heard before the light on the pad flashed green and the door was open.</p><p>Of course, it was empty, but Tony was still in shock. A <em>sixteen year old kid </em>had beaten his strongest security system besides JARVIS. It wasn't possible. There was no way that Leo had just cracked his safe.</p><p>"No. Not possible," he insisted, turning with wide eyes to stare at the demigod, who had a proud grin on his face.</p><p>"Yep, it is. I just did it. Were you not watching?" Leo said, channeling his inner-Percy for sass.</p><p>Tony so wanted to protest more, but he knew it was futile. Plus, having someone almost as smart as him around might be some fun. Bruce was always worrying whenever they worked together, and Leo gave off way different vibes.</p><p>"I was watching, still working on believing, though," Tony said, "That was some pretty cool shit there, kid. Care to tell me what it was?"</p><p>Leo said, "I just talked to the safe. It was a little harder to crack than some of the other ones I've done before, but I got through to it eventually. It was pretty strong. Good work on that design."</p><p>"Thank you... I guess," Tony said.</p><p>Tony couldn't remember telling Leo who had created the safe, but he figured he would get the same answer as before if he asked. Believing these kids' powers was a little difficult, especially when all of them defied the laws of any science. Tony was starting to think that they were Asgardians, with how they fought and everything.</p><p>"Well, let's move onto Hazel. We don't have all day," he said, turning to the daughter of Pluto, who had stayed to the side during Leo's entire turn, "What are you gonna do? It's gonna be pretty hard to follow up on that performance."</p><p>Hazel had had time to figure it out while she was waiting, so she answered right away, "I won't be needing the box for my turn. I just need you."</p><p>Tony gave her an incredulous look, "What do you need me for?"</p><p>"Just tell me a metal. Any metal in the world, and I'll bring it here," she answered.</p><p>Okay, Tony was done. There was NO WAY that was possible, and he knew it. He wasn't stupid. These kids were messing with him now.</p><p>"Seriously?! I'm not falling for that! You can't do that!" he exclaimed.</p><p>Hazel just gave him a knowing smile, "I get that a lot. But I always seem to prove those people wrong..."</p><p>Tony sighed, "Okay, sure. Let's do... Vibranium."</p><p>He kept a straight face on the outside, but on the inside he was smiling like a maniac. Vibranium could only be found in Wakanda, and they barely had any left. There was no way she could get it all the way here, even if there was any left.</p><p>Hazel nodded and closed her eyes, letting her powers search for the precious metal. She had heard of it before from some people in the Underworld. Apparently, it could only be found in a small country in Africa, so she had to widen her search.</p><p>It didn't take long to find some, but that was only because what she found was Steve's shield. She hadn't known that it was made of vibranium, and stored that knowledge away for future use. Then, she kept looking.</p><p>Soon, she found some and told a very small piece to come to her. You couldn't ask her how it reached all the way up through the tower, but she always just concluded that it was magic. It's the simplest solution.</p><p>When she opened her eyes, a content smile on her face, she looked up at Tony with expectation of a shocked outburst, only to find him looking expectantly at her. So he hadn't figured out what she had done yet, apparently.</p><p>"Look down," she instructed.</p><p>And Tony did. Only to find that a small rock of Vibranium was poking up from the floor. At first, he wasn't sure how to react, but then, he reached down to touch it, trying to make sure what he was seeing was actually true. But before he could put one finger on it, Hazel shoved him away.</p><p>"Don't pick it up! It's cursed, you idiot!" she yelled, but then her own face slacked in shock.</p><p>She hadn't meant to say that last part. It was the truth, but her powers could definitely be linked back to the gods. She was not going to be the one to let the secret slip. That was going to be Percy or Leo, if anyone.</p><p>"That's amazing," Tony breathed, openly staring in shock at the metal.</p><p>But before another second had passed, the rock popped back through the floor and was gone as quickly as it had come.</p><p>When Tony looked up at Hazel in question, all he got was a shrug in response. It wasn't safe to keep the metals lying around.</p><p>Tony physically shook the shock out of him, and said, "Alright. That was pretty impressive, I'll admit, both of you. We can be done for the day. I'm gonna go check out what some of the others are doing."</p><p>"Yeah, I'll do that too," Hazel said, turning to Leo. "What about you? What are you gonna do?"</p><p>"I think I'll try to help JARVIS find the bad guys," he responded. "I'm getting nervous just waiting for them to blow something else up."</p><p>While Tony was walking away, he yelled to Leo, "Don't break anything! Everything here costs more than everything you own!"</p><p>Leo wasn't so sure about that, considering the amount of celestial bronze he owned, but he didn't comment on it.</p><hr/><p>Annabeth and Piper were hard to find an exercise for. Neither of them had very obvious superpowers (one didn't have one at all), in Natasha's opinion. She wanted to see how much the others would have to protect them if it came down to a fight of powers. Sure, she didn't have any abilities, but she had also been training how to make up for that almost her whole life.</p><p>So, if anyone could find a weakness in these two girls, it would be her, and Natasha was determined to find it.</p><p>"Okay girls, this shouldn't take too long. You're only throwing knives at moving targets. The trick is, you won't know when the targets will pop up. You'll be standing in the middle and holographic targets will form around you at random times, always speeding up. If you're as good as you say you are, you can handle this no problem," Natasha said, eyes piercing into Piper and Annabeth.</p><p>"Yeah, we got this," Annabeth shot back, standing proud. "I'll go first."</p><p>Natasha was not making it unknown that she didn't trust the demigods, and Annabeth was not going to let that continue. Only the "kids" knew what was really going on, so the adults needed to get in line with their way of doing things before somebody got killed. These people that they were hunting had already killed many people, so they knew they were capable of it. This makeshift group needed to be a well-oiled machine by the time they found the bad guys.</p><p>"Okay, just step into that square on the ground, and it'll begin. Piper and I will be stepping out of the range," Natasha said, grabbing Piper's arm and dragging her back about seven yards, "Let's begin!"</p><p>It seemingly came out of nowhere, the target. Annabeth had barely been able to grab some of the knives from the table next to her before it formed. It was an orange color, and very pixelated. As soon as she shot the arrow right through the bullseye, it exploded in a shower of orange pixels. She barely had time to let that sink in before another one popped up. They seemed to be stopping the knives, but as soon as they deformed, the weapons just dropped to the ground.</p><p>It was rapidly speeding up, but it was nothing to being overrun with monsters trying to kill you. Soon enough, the targets started moving, so she had to adjust her stance to hit them where they would be, not where they were.</p><p>It was exhilarating. She hadn't had this much of an adrenaline rush in a year!</p><p>Her five minutes of throwing seemed to end all-too-quickly. Soon, the targets stopped popping up, and Natasha was walking towards her with an almost-impressed look on her face.</p><p>"Not bad, Chase," she conceded.</p><p>"Thanks," Annabeth responded, going and helping Piper pick up the knives lying around their area.</p><p>When she got to her, her friend looked up, "That was pretty good, Annabeth. I don't know how I'm supposed to follow that, though."</p><p>Annabeth rolled her eyes, "Oh, shut up. I could've done better. And you'll do great, Pipes. I trained you, right?"</p><p>She had a light twinkle in her eyes that always came when she was joking around (and that wasn't often). Piper had been trying her very best to see it out as much as possible after Tartarus. Percy and Annabeth put on a strong front, but the Seven could all see they were still recovering, and probably would always be. Nobody just jumped right back into things after something as traumatic as that trip through Hell.</p><p>But Piper didn't let it be known how proud she was of Annabeth for making a joke; that would only stop the fun right in its tracks.</p><p>"Thanks," Piper said, picking up the last knife before replacing Annabeth in her previous spot in the square.</p><p>In her opinion, she wasn't doing as good as Annabeth, or making it look as easy, but it wasn't too difficult. She had been practicing all the time on her fighting skills, and she especially focused on daggers. Knives were balanced a bit differently, but it was the same concept. She just had to compensate for the loss of weight.</p><p>Soon enough, Piper found the flow and could slightly anticipate when the next target would pop up.</p><p>Annabeth knew Piper would be fine doing this exercise. Sure, it got the blood flowing, but it wasn't the hardest thing they had done. They had fought in actual wars.</p><p>Before Piper had known what happened, the targets stopped showing up, and the five minutes were up. She was breathing a little heavily, but a giant grin was taking up her face.</p><p>"Not bad, either," Natasha complemented, "You will probably be able to take care of yourselves in a fight."</p><p>"Probably?" Annabeth glared.</p><p>Natasha returned the glare, "Probably."</p><p>Annabeth wanted to say more, but a shout from Leo, who had just sprinted back into the room, interrupted her.</p><p>"Guys! Guys! We got a hit!" he screamed, eyes wild with excitement.</p><hr/><p>Everyone but Hazel and Tony stared at Leo in confusion and concern. They didn't know that he had gone to work with JARVIS on tracking the bombers.</p><p>Tony ran up to Leo, "What? Where?"</p><p>"In Las Vegas," Leo answered.</p><p>The rest of the heroes had all formed a group around Leo. Percy and Annabeth had naturally gravitated next to each other. At Leo's answer, they clasped hands and shared a look. They knew why Las Vegas was chosen: The Lotus Hotel and Casino. Flashbacks to zebras and old games flashed through their minds.</p><p>"What would they want in Las Vegas?" Steve asked.</p><p>"Who cares?! We're going to Vegas baby!" Tony exclaimed, pumping his fist. "JARVIS? Prepare the jet."</p><p>Tony was the only one who hadn't noticed the oldest demigods' reaction towards</p><p>Las Vegas. He didn't realize how bad this could really be. The demigods didn't have the time to make sure the Avengers didn't get stuck in the casino, if that's where they were going (which it probably was).</p><p>"Um, care to share what's bothering you two?" Steve asked Percy and Annabeth.</p><p>"We've been to Vegas before. If we're going where we think we might be going, this could be bad. You need to listen to us exactly, okay? It's important," Percy answered.</p><p>Tony gave him a confused look. "What are you talking about, kid? We'll be fine. I don't need a teeanger telling me how to do what I'm best at."</p><p>Annabeth glared at the billionaire, "And what is that; what you're good at? Because I thought it was being lazy and never taking anything seriously."</p><p>"Annabeth, just let it go. We'll just have to watch him closer." Percy said, resting a hand on his girlfriend's shoulder.</p><p>With one last glare at Tony, and a warning look to the other Avengers, Annabeth stormed out of the training room, heading back up to her room to prepare without another word. <em>Mortals were so stubborn,</em> she thought,<em> especially when you're trying to protect them. It's literally their birthright to protect mortals, and they never let them! </em></p><p>Storming into her room, Annabeth grabbed a duffle bag and started stuffing supplies into it: weapons, spare clothes, ambrosia and nectar, armor, and a couple other things. She was so distracted by her anger that she didn't see the shadows fluctuating in the corner, or the black snout poking out.</p><p>She didn't see it until it was too late.</p><hr/><p>"Are you going to tell us what that was all about back there?" Jason asked Percy as the rest of the demigods were walking back to their rooms.</p><p>Percy sighed, exhausted with the day but knowing it was not even close to being over, "Las Vegas is where Annabeth, Grover and I went during our first quest together. We got stuck in the Lotus Hotel and Casino. It's the home of the Lotus-eaters. They trap you in there and you don't feel time passing. We were in there for a week without realizing it. It's dangerous, man."</p><p>Piper and Jason shared a worried look, and Piper said, "So... we need to keep a close eye on the mortals on this mission, right?"</p><p>"A <em>very</em> close eye," Percy nodded.</p><p>When Percy reached Annabeth's door, he decided to go check on her. "Go get your stuff. Let's meet in the living room."</p><p>"Okay, Aquaman," Leo said, dashing into his soot-stained room.</p><p>Percy wasn't sure what he was expecting to find, maybe Annabeth crying, screaming, or angrily throwing things into a bag (that's the most likely), but he was NOT prepared for nothing. Literally nothing; the room was empty. There was an open duffle on the bed, along with a couple of weapons lying around it, but no Annabeth.</p><p>He wasn't getting worried yet, though. She could just be in the bathroom. That was a viable option. He would not allow himself to freak out yet. At least not until he checked the bathroom...</p><p>... And the bathroom was empty! Now he allowed himself to freak out. He started storming around the room, tossing things around looking for a clue as to where she went, anything!</p><p>"Annabeth! Wise girl!" he called, though he knew it was fruitless.</p><p>In their lives, nothing was ever as easy as simply calling for someone and they came back. Annabeth was missing, and he had no idea how to find her.</p><p>Unless someone was stupid enough to leave a trail of shadows, that is. Looking in the corner, Percy saw that the shadows in the right corner were moving around unnaturally, a lot like what happened after they were used for shadow travel. He had spent enough time around Nico to understand what it looked like.</p><p>So this meant that someone with access to shadow traveling took her, and that wasn't a long list. It was probably a hellhound that took her! Oh, were they going to pay.</p><p>Percy could feel his powers slipping, and the walls were giving scary creaks. No matter how much he wanted to just explode, he knew that he had to take a deep breath and focus on recentering himself. He would be no help to Annabeth if he wasn't in control. Some part of his brain was telling him that maybe letting off a little steam WOULD help get his powers under control, but no, he promised Annabeth. And Percy refused to break that promise if he could.</p><p>"JARVIS!" he yelled, already rushing out the door, "Call everyone to the living room! Now!"</p><p>"Right away, sir," JARVIS responded.</p><p>Percy ended up just running to the living room, not wasting any time being careful. Annabeth was missing, and he needed to find her and get her back NOW.</p><p>His emotions were running high, so he could sense all the water and liquids around him (it was a lot), and it was becoming distracting.</p><p>When he got there, only Steve, Clint, and Natasha were waiting so far. Though Hazel and Frank walked in right after him, probably having heard him scream before JARVIS had even called everyone.</p><p>"What's going on?" Steve asked, concern filling his eyes.</p><p>Percy paced and said, "Wait until everyone else is here. Then I'll tell you."</p><p>His mind kept flashing pictures of all his and Annabeth's enemies. Years and years of fighting monsters and wars were playing on his brain. There were so many possible people, even if it probably was the current gang that they were searching for. He didn't want to let himself believe that mortals could be so messed-up that they worked with monsters, monsters that they couldn't even begin to understand. It was so far-fetched, and yet it was his life!</p><p>As these thoughts were going through his head, the rest of the team had finally made it in. They were all sporting confused and concerned glances. Natasha seemed to have figured out that one of them was missing, and that it wasn't normal for that person and Percy to be separated. Annabeth was missing.</p><p>"Percy, man. Stop pacing and tell us what's wrong," Jason laid a hand on his friend's shoulder.</p><p>Percy's eyes got a little misty as he told them, "Annabeth is missing. Taken. She's gone, and I don't know where to find her."</p><p>Hazel gasped.</p><p>Nothing was right with this. Percy without Annabeth was wrong. So wrong. They needed to be reunited soon, and quickly.</p><p>Percy started pacing again, absentmindedly twirling Riptide around his fingers. He had decided that it was best to start in Las Vegas and go from there. There was a good chance that it was the gang who had taken her, and that they were holding her there. It was his only idea.</p><p>The others had just been sharing worried looks and a few whispered thoughts before Tony suddenly jumped up, holding his phone like it might explode.</p><p>"Guys, I think I know who has her..." he said, making a few hand gestures before his phone screen was projected in front of them.</p><p>It was a picture. Of Annabeth.</p><p>She was hanging from celestial bronze chains, with a leather gag in her mouth, and shackles on her ankles. Her hair was a matted mess, and she was unconscious. Even so, Percy could see that she had a black eye, probably from struggling. She wouldn't go without a fight, that's for sure. But still, this was not the Annabeth they knew. The Annabeth they knew was a strong force to be reckoned with. This...person was not her.</p><p>Percy let out an almost animalistic growl at the sight. They were going to pay, whoever had taken her. All of them.</p><p>"It has a note," Tony said, throwing up another picture.</p><p>It said:</p><p>
  <em>We are The Truth Seekers. We have your blonde bitch, and she will be dead in the next 24 hours unless you reveal yourselves. The world deserves to know! It is our right to know the monstrosities that go unseen, right beneath our noses! 24 hours, or she's dead. We're at the Lotus Hotel and Casino, another one of the hidden monstrosities in our world. Tell the truth!</em>
</p><p>Percy was going to kill them. He didn't care if they were mortals, they were going to die. They hurt Annabeth, he hurts back. Worse.</p><p>"We need to suit-up, and then we can get going and rescue her. But first, we need a plan," Steve started to speak, but before he could, the world flooded in.</p><p><em>Screw control,</em> Percy thought.</p><p>He let the pipes and burst and break the windows. Standing on the very edge of the empty window seal, he let out the loudest taxi whistle the Avengers had ever heard. Waiting only a second for a black blur to show up on the horizon, Percy jumped.</p><hr/><p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. hurricane percy hits vegas</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>EEE! I'm so excited for this chapter, and idk why. We get some Poseidon content tho, so yay for that! I'm pretty sure I'm just so excited cuz I just finished writing ch. 12 and IT. IS. AMAZING!! </p><p>Ok, so if you've noticed my change in profile pic, you can figure out what I'm about to do. Well...surprise! Another pjo stan is coming out! I'm pan🏳️🌈✨</p><p>Anyway, remember to comment, subscribe, and leave kudos! Stay safe and happy reading!</p><p>- your author</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Okay, so maybe jumping out of the window before Blackjack was within a hundred feet was a bad idea, but can you really blame him? If Percy had stayed, the others would have tried to convince him to wait and make a plan before leaving to save Annabeth, and it probably would've worked! But doing that gave her captors more time to hurt her. That was not okay with him.</p><p>Fortunately, his amazing pegasus could fly really fast when put in the right situation. Say, one like Percy freefalling from a skyscraper? He still cut it close, though. Percy got within six feet of the ground before Blackjack swooped up under him. It hurt like hades.</p><p>"What am I here for, boss? Not that I don't enjoy our hang-out sessions, but still, why am I here?" Percy heard Blackjack ask in his head.</p><p>"We're going to Vegas to save Annabeth. She's been taken by the people we've been hunting," he answered.</p><p>"Oh, no! I'll go into overdrive for this trip! Annabeth gives me donuts!"</p><p>If one looked closely, they would see that Percy cracked a small smile at that. Blackjack always knew how to lighten the mood.</p><p>"Just hurry, bud. They sent pictures of her tied up and beaten. I'm not sure what condition she'll be in when we get to her," Percy said.</p><p>"That's it! These guys are dead meat!" Blackjack sped up even more.</p><p>Percy was really afraid to look down because he was pretty sure that they had already passed four state lines, and his friend showed no signs of letting up. With all the complaining about being tired Blackjack did on their other quests, Percy would've never thought he could do this. Just goes to show what can happen when you hurt someone's friend.</p><p>Yeah, Percy had calmed down enough to rationalize that this was a stupid idea (maybe his worst one yet), but he was still going to do it! This was Annabeth we're talking about! There's nothing he wouldn't do for her, and that includes storming straight into that gods-forsaken casino and demanding to know where she was.</p><p>If you're wondering, yes, he did just that when they got there. Blackjack almost passed out as soon as they landed, but Percy was already hopping off and running in before the pegasus had even caught his breath.</p><p>"Get out of here, bud! This is gonna get messy!" he called over his shoulder before pushing the front doors of the Lotus Hotel and Casino open.</p><hr/><p>It was very clear that something was wrong as soon as Percy stepped into the lobby. It was completely empty. The farther he went in, the less he found. There was nobody. The last time he had been there, it was packed with people from all different time periods and everyone was doing something, but now, nothing.</p><p>It was disconcerting, to say the least. It felt like the beginning to every horror movie out there.</p><p>What was worse, is that every activity was shut down but one: the ferris wheel. It was spinning with all of the lights on, a faint carnival music playing from hidden speakers. Once again, Percy's thoughts drifted to horror movies. He wouldn't be surprised if a ghost popped up in front of him.</p><p>Before he continued on, Percy stopped and took a breath, bouncing up and down to shake out the nerves, "Come on, Percy. You got this. Just go save Annabeth and get out. That's all there is to it."</p><p>He walked up to the ferris wheel and saw that there was a single occupant riding it: Annabeth. She was up on the top, but Percy would recognize those golden locks anywhere. Her form was slumped against the side of her car, so she was probably unconscious. As she got closer to the ground, Percy saw that she was even more beaten up than the picture had shown. Her hands and ankles were bound with celestial bronze chains and she had a gag in her mouth.</p><p>Percy's blood boiled.</p><p>"Annabeth!" He shouted, running towards her as soon as the cart got to the bottom.</p><p>It kept moving, but he quickly grabbed her and pulled her off and away from the ride.</p><p>"Annabeth, wake up. Come on, 'beth, you have to be okay," he muttered, pulling the gag out of her mouth and starting to work on the chains, though he wasn't sure where to start.</p><p>Her eyes were still closed, but he heard a faint whisper from her mouth say, "It's Annabeth."</p><p>He laughed in relief, pulling her to his chest in a tight hug.</p><p>"Don't ever do that to me again. I lost it," he said, kissing her on the forehead.</p><p>Her eyes slitted open, "No promises, Seaweed Brain."</p><p>Percy was about to bring her in for a kiss when a voice interrupted them, "I'm glad you got to save her, Perseus. Now it'll be that much worse for you when we take her away again."</p><p>Percy shot up from the ground, pulling out Riptide and going into a protective stance in front of a kneeling Annabeth, "You're not going anywhere near her!"</p><p>The voice belonged to a mortal man. He had a long cut along his face, which seemed to be made by a claw, and his hair was a dark brown with speckles of grey. He seemed pretty average besides the scar. He had three men behind him, along with a hellhound, two empousa, and a couple basilisks. All looked ready to strike at a moment's notice.</p><p>The man tutted, "Oh, but I think I am. You see, you're going to give her to us."</p><p>Percy glared, "And what makes you think that?"</p><p>The man smiled, "Because of your family, of course. The normal one. Your mom, Sally, and her husband, Paul, and what's the last one's name...? The baby... Estelle! Yes, Estelle. We know where they are right now, and with one order from me, they will be killed by the giants we have standing by."</p><p>Percy growled, lunging forward, but a growl from the hellhound stopped him, "You're not going to touch them or Annabeth! I'll kill you first!"</p><p>The mortal leader gave a fake frown, "Oh, Perseus, how naive you are. Don't you see what's happening? Your people are the monsters. You just threatened to kill a mortal, the very thing you are put on this Earth to protect! How would your father feel about that?"</p><p>Hundreds of pipes burst in the hotel. Percy was only holding himself back because of Annabeth. As soon as she was out of danger, he would let himself go. He didn't care that they were mortals. Those men weren't the type of people he wanted to protect.</p><p>But- his family were still in danger. Even if the guy was bluffing, Percy couldn't take that risk.</p><p>Annabeth pulled herself to her feet and put a hand on his shoulder, leaning in to whisper in his ear. "Let them take me. You know it's the right thing to do. I'll be okay. You just need to lead the Avengers to their base, okay, and then you can save me all over again."</p><p>She cracked a small smile, hoping to comfort him but ultimately just making Percy feel worse.</p><p>Percy pulled her in for a searing kiss, and when he pulled back, a defeated look in his eyes, Annabeth knew he was letting her go. She had to; it was the best solution. She could protect herself and the Blofis family couldn't.</p><p>"I love you," she whispered.</p><p>"I love you, too," Percy's eyes were misty and he was slipping on his control.</p><p>With one last, loving look at her boyfriend, Annabeth walked to the opposing group, allowing them to roughly grab onto her and pull her to the hellhound, who was ready to shadow travel her and the other mortals to wherever their base was.</p><p>Percy steeled himself for a fight because he knew there was no way it was that easy. He was not getting out of this unscathed. They had left the monsters there for a reason, and that reason was to probably kill him. That wasn't going to happen, though. They had chosen the wrong day to mess with Percy Jackson. He was going to let Hades rain down on them.</p><p>"Are we gonna stand here all day or are we gonna fight?" he asked, twirling his sword around, "You know what? Nevermind. I don't feel like fighting."</p><p>Then before the monsters could react, he released the storm within.</p><p>Ω ♆ Ω</p><p>"Come on people! Let's get a move on!" Steve shouted, already running to the quinjet.</p><p>He saw that everybody was still lagging, but wasn't sure what else to do. Fortunately, Piper had noticed his struggle and came to his rescue.</p><p>"Everybody hurry up! We don't know what stupid thing Percy is going to do, so we need to get there before he does it!" she yelled, lacing lots of charmspeak with her words.</p><p>Instantly, all of the demigods and Avengers sped up and were all on the jet within a minute. Steve gave Piper a grateful glance before climbing in himself, the daughter of Aphrodite following close behind.</p><p>Once everyone had taken their seats, Natasha and Clint up in the cockpit, they took off.</p><p>"So...does anyone even know what we're going to do when we get there? Or what Percy was planning on doing?" Leo asked, voicing everyone's thoughts.</p><p>Steve sighed, "We can only do damage control. If Percy hasn't done anything yet, we talk him down from it. If he has, we figure out a solution to getting it stopped, no matter what it takes. Now we don't know Percy as well as you five, so we need you to try and predict what he might do."</p><p>The rest of the Seven shared a look and Jason spoke up, "Percy and Annabeth are very...special to each other. If one of them is hurt, the other loses control very easily. So, basically, anything could have happened."</p><p>He glanced apologetically at the Captain, who just sighed in response. It was no doubt going to be a long day, and then an even longer one when Fury found out about this. Going down that train of thought made him more and more exhausted.</p><p>"Las Vegas, here we come," Tony muttered.</p><hr/><p>As they started entering the Las Vegas area, it became abundantly clear that they were already too late to stop Percy. The sky was dark, thunder rolling through the clouds, rain pouring down on the streets around the casino. A whirlwind of water was circling the hotel and the ground was shaking. Geisurs were popping up just as fast as they were closing. It was a shitshow, basically.</p><p>"Percy did this? By himself?!" Tony exclaimed, staring in shock at the storm.</p><p>"Yep. He doesn't seem like much of a kid now, does he?" Jason said, strapping an arm guard on.</p><p>"Nope," Tony whispered.</p><p>Frank said, "How are we even going to get inside?"</p><p>"We're going to go from above, straight through the eye of the storm. It's the only opening, from what I can see," Natasha answered, already guiding the plane up and towards the center of the destruction, "Hold on. This is gonna get rough."</p><p>"Oh. That's comforting," Frank muttered, holding on to his seatbelt tight.</p><p>"Dude, if we crash, you can just turn into a fly or something and get out of here, but me, I'm going to die with the plane," Leo said, cracking a joking smile.</p><p>Hazel sighed, "Leo, your fireproof. If anyone would survive the crash, you would."</p><p>Leo chose not to point out that he was trying to lighten the mood with a self-deprecating joke. Hazel with confidence is scary.</p><p>Besides, that's when the shaking started. The wind and water was throwing the quinjet around, thrashing it from side-to-side, trying to throw it down but Natasha and Clint were keeping it up.</p><p>Slowly but surely, they got the plane lower and lower until it was hovering just above the courtyard of the hotel (if you can even call it that). It was an open area with rollercoasters and games all around. The Avengers couldn't believe they hadn't heard of this place before! It was amazing! The demigods, however, were shocked that the mortals could even see what was around them. The Mist was either weakening (unlikely) or the Avengers were starting to become clear sighted (could be bad).</p><p>"Ok, everyone, get out before this thing crashes!" Natasha yelled, gripping the steering gear like a lifeline.</p><p>It probably wasn't even her demanding voice that got everyone off the jet quickly, but they did anyway. The demigods and Avengers found themselves huddled behind a concession stand while they surveyed the area. It was easier for the demigods, who could naturally see through the veil of Mist surrounding it. The Avengers' eyes were refocusing every couple of seconds because something like a stuffed bear would turn into a stuffed Minotaur and then back into a bear again.</p><p>"Stay close, team. We're in unknown territory," Steve immediately slipped into his leadership role.</p><p>"Do you guys see Percy?" Hazel asked, looking around for her friend with a worried expression on her face.</p><p>"Um...yeah, I do. Over there," Frank's hand pointed towards the ferris wheel, and everyone's eyes followed it's path.</p><p>It led directly to the center of the storm, just as they all secretly knew it would. Everyone wanted to believe their friend or colleague couldn't be capable of creating a "natural" disaster until it happens. Now the team was left to clean up the mess.</p><p>"Oh, great. This should be fun," Tony sarcastically commented, seeing that Percy's eyes were closed and he was just sitting there on his knees.</p><p>He wasn't even wet, or affected by the storm at all. It seemed to be molding around the boy. The cracks on the ground had even left him alone. Percy was a force of nature.</p><p>"How are we going to get to him, let alone make him stop all of this?!" Jason asked, raising his voice to be heard over the screaming wind.</p><p>"I don't think he'll hurt us. He let us come down with the plane. If it was anyone else, he would've let it tear apart, but not us. He wants us to help him, and we're going to do just that, okay?" Piper answered, standing up.</p><p>She still had to stabilize herself on the cart, but she kept herself up. Everyone else in the group still looked skeptical of her plan, if you could even call it that, but they followed her lead and stood up as well.</p><p>With a calm determination only a demigod could possess in the face of battle, she started the trek over to their friend. Percy didn't make a move, either not seeing them or not caring.</p><p>"Percy. Percy. Listen to my voice, Percy. Everything is going to be alright. You need to focus on my voice, Percy," Piper started to say even though the wind was carrying it away a second later.</p><p>They had to try everything, and given the fact that the wind seemed to slow down just a tiny bit, Piper took it as a win.</p><p>The Avengers and the rest of the Seven were making slow movement, their feet feeling like lead as they forced themselves to keep going. They were grabbing onto whatever was nailed to the ground for support as small tremors rocked the building. It was obvious there had been a different, major earthquake that had caused most of the damage, so they weren't complaining about aftershocks.</p><p>"Keep going! We're almost there!" Steve yelled, digging his shield into the ground for something to hold onto.</p><p>It took a long time for a short distance, but they eventually made it to right in front of Percy. He had still shown no sign of knowing they were there.</p><p>"Percy! Can you hear us?!" Jason shouted, grabbing onto his gladius that he had previously stabbed into the ground.</p><p>Still no movement, though a tear did fall down his cheek. It was the only water that had actually touched him so far. Everyone but him was soaked to the bone, while he had stayed completely unaffected. Jason kneeled down and tried shaking his friend, only to be pushed back by a blast of water.</p><p>While he was sputtering out the liquid, Tony said, "We need a new plan! This isn't working!"</p><p>"Yeah, no shit, Sherlock! But do you see a plan laying around here somewhere, cuz' I don't!" Piper shouted.</p><p>That's when a sea breeze blew through the area and under their noses. Unlike the stormy sea smell that Percy was radiating right now, this one was calming and gave you the feeling of a relaxing day at the beach. Jason was the quickest one to realize what was happening, so he warned everyone else as quick as possible, "Close your eyes!"</p><p>The Seven followed his instructions without question, being used to this by now (plus Jason wasn't planning on nearly dying again). The Avengers, however, were a divided front. Natasha, Clint, and Steve all did as they were told, not willing to take a chance on Frank being wrong about whatever he was scared of. Tony and Bruce, did not. They looked around at Frank like he was crazy. Fortunately, they had turned enough so that when there was a blinding flash of light and a small pop, nobody had seen it full-on. What was left afterwards was a man in a hawaiian shirt and sandals. He had tan bermuda shorts and a beat-up old fishing hat with the words Neptune's Lucky Fishing Hat on it. But those weren't the most shocking features about the man. What was most shocking was his similarity to Percy. His skin tone, matching Percy's. His hair color, matching Percy's with only a few more grey spots. His eyes, matching Percy's without a doubt. Natasha was the first of the Avengers to come to the startling realization that this was Percy's supposedly missing-at-sea father.</p><p>He was completely unaffected by the storm swirling around them. Physically, at least. He seemed to be really worried about his son, and only spared a glance at the other befores crouching in front of Percy. He put his hands on his son's shoulders and gently shook him.</p><p>"Son, wake up," Poseidon said, "You have to stop this."</p><p>Percy made a groaning sound and slitted his eyes open. His arms were wrapped around his stomach in pain.</p><p>"Ow," he muttered.</p><p>Poseidon cracked a small smile, though his eyebrows were still furrowed in worry, "That's what happens when you create a tropical storm and earthquake in the middle of Nevada."</p><p>Percy's eyes shot open, "Dad?! What're you doing here?!"</p><p>Poseidon gave him a frown, "Making sure my son doesn't kill himself."</p><p>Percy grimaced, holding himself just a little bit tighter at the reminder of what was currently still going on around them.</p><p>"Percy, what were you thinking?!" the god of the sea exclaimed.</p><p>The boy knew he was in the wrong, so he just shrugged and gave his father a misty-eyed, helpless look, "I can't make it stop, Dad. What do I do?"</p><p>Poseidon sighed. Seeing how fragile his son was right now broke his heart.</p><p>"You can let me help. We'll stop it together."</p><p>Percy nodded, letting the deity help him to his feet and support him once he got there. Neither man spared a glance at the assembled group of heroes behind them, instead turning determined faces towards the storm.</p><p>"You focus on the earthquakes. I'll take care of the storm, Perseus," Poseidon said.</p><p>The son of the sea god nodded, kneeling down so he had his hands placed on the ground. He closed his eyes and focused; focused only on the shaking, and then imagined the shaking receding like the tide. Then, eventually, it stopped all together.</p><p>He felt a large weight be lifted off his shoulders at the feeling of his power pulling itself back inside of him. His father had made quick work of the storm, and now all that was left was a trashed mystical hotel and casino.</p><p>Percy turned back to father, and gave him a small, grateful, exhausted smile, "Thanks, Dad. And I'm sorry for letting it get so out of hand. I know better than that."</p><p>Poseidon grasped his son in a bone-crushing hug, "It's okay, son. I'm not one to talk. Remember San Francisco?" he turned to a whisper, "That was my own version of a temper-tantrum. Don't tell your Uncle Zeus, though. He'd skin me alive if he knew the real reason I did that."</p><p>Percy's smile widened just a bit, "Okay, dad. You can let me go now. This is getting weird. We don't do this. You're not even supposed to be here right now."</p><p>At first, that last thought was just a flippant comment, but now Percy realized just how much trouble he, or his father, could be in with Zeus because of this.</p><p>"Dad! You're not even supposed to be here right now! You have to go! Right now, before Uncle Z finds out!" he shouted, shoving himself out of the hug.</p><p>Poseidon laughed, "Persues, think about it. You just created a 7.1 earthquake in Nevada, while simultaneously making a category 5 hurricane pop up nowhere near the coast. I think he noticed. He was actually the one to send me. He thought I'd be the only way to calm you down."</p><p>He gave his son a meaningful glance, and he got a sheepish neck rub in return.</p><p>Poseidon sighed again, "It's okay. He's not too mad. He's actually pretty happy that it wasn't one of his kids this time."</p><p>The god finally turned and acknowledged the other people in the room, giving Jason a look. Jason didn't seem to know what to do with that. He just kinda stood there, in shock that he had been noticed by Neptu- Poseidon.</p><p>Frank and Hazel both kneeled, soon followed by the rest of the demigods. It seemed that everyone was still recovering from the storm, and wasn't sure what to do with the fact that Percy's dad (a literal god) just showed up and was speaking with their friend like they were best buds (or more accurately, father and son).</p><p>The Avengers were giving incredulous looks to everyone, even the superspies. Ok, so first, a random fisherman shows up, then they find out that the guy is actually Percy's father, and then dad helps stop a natural disaster. But that was all easier to process than the kids kneeling to Percy's dad. Like he was God or something!</p><p>"Um, is anyone going to explain what the hell is going on right now?" Tony asked, head whipping back and forth between the look-a-like father and son and the rest of the teens.</p><p>Poseidon turned to the billionaire with an amused smile on his face, "Anthony Stark. Nice to finally meet you. My nephew enjoyed your work."</p><p>Percy snorted, realizing just what nephew his dad was talking about. Of course Ares would like a weapons manufacturer.</p><p>Tony smirked, smug, "Well, thank you, random stranger. That means absolutely nothing coming from you because we have not yet been introduced. I'm Tony Stark."</p><p>Poseidon turned to his son, "I like this one. Very brave."</p><p>"Give it a minute," Percy said, "It'll pass."</p><p>Ignoring the billionaire's protests, Poseidon turned to the demigods assembled, "Rise, half-bloods. You have saved Olympus enough to not need to kneel to me."</p><p>They cautiously rose.</p><p>"Olympus? Half-bloods? What are you talking about? Who are you?" Natasha asked, narrowing her eyes at the stranger.</p><p>She didn't trust him. He radiated too much power, power that was too similar to Percy's for her liking.</p><p>"I am Poseidon, Percy's father and a couple other titles. You may call me Lord Poseidon," was the answer she got.</p><p>She raised her eyebrows. The guy had a strong god-complex. Though she had met Thor before, and he had one just the same. Maybe these were more Asgardians or something like that.</p><p>"What are you?" Clint asked, not realizing just how much he was pushing it.</p><p>Poseidon's gaze darkened, "Be careful how you speak to me, mortal. I am being very gracious right now."</p><p>"Are you implying that you aren't mortal? Like Thor?" Bruce spoke up, literally surprising everyone.</p><p>The fact that he had come along was a miracle in itself, and now he was speaking to this obviously-powerful man.</p><p>Poseidon's nose wrinkled in disgust, "Thor is nothing like me. He is no god."</p><p>Percy decided to break in before things could get out of hand again, "Ok! Dad, you should probably get going. You know, oceans to run and everything!"</p><p>Poseidon's shark-like glare softened for his son and he nodded. But before he could leave, he pulled Percy aside.</p><p>"Tell them. You have our permission," he said.</p><p>Percy smirked, "I think I got that from you throwing around words like 'Olympus' and 'half-blood,' Dad."</p><p>Poseidon turned serious, "Be careful in the near future, my son. You have a rough journey through the Sea of Monsters to rescue Ms. Chase. She is on Polyphemus' island. That is all I could gather for you. I hope it is enough to keep you alive. I know it would be a fool's errand to try and convince you to not go. Your fatal flaw prevents it."</p><p>"I'll be okay, Dad. I promise."</p><p>Poseidon noticed how he didn't swear it on the River Styx. So Perseus had just as many doubts about this quest as he did. He refused to lose another son, though.</p><p>Placing a hand on Percy's shoulder, he spoke one last time, "Just be careful, Percy. For me, if you must."</p><p>Percy nodded.</p><p>"Alright," Poseidon said, "Everyone close your eyes!"</p><p>This time, everyone, including the mortals, listened.</p><p>Once the light had died down, Percy turned back to the Avengers and his friends, a hugely-apologetic look on his face.</p><p>"I'm so sorry, guys. Did anyone get hurt?" he asked, walking up to them.</p><p>"Reports are showing that there were only mild injuries, no fatalities," JARVIS' voice spoke from Tony's suit.</p><p>Percy felt some worry leave him at that reassurance, but the peace only lasted so long. He saw that every one of the Avengers were looking to the teenagers for an explanation, and now they had permission to give it.</p><p>The son of Poseidon heaved a great sigh, rubbing his gut again, "I think it's time you knew the truth. The full truth this time."</p><hr/><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Let me know what you think! I'm sorry for my wonky updating schedule...</p>
        </blockquote><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>How was it? Let me know in the comments! Also, please subscribe and leave kudos. Happy reading and stay safe!</p><p>- your author</p></blockquote></div></div>
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